#pride goeth

Pride Goeth: A book about two college freshmen who are spontaneously shipped by thousands, after a photo goes viral.

Leigh Gardner is figuring things out and constantly feeling pressured to come out. He hears announcements from people who are loud and proud about who they are. He sees the pride merch that the bookstore is cranking out. He reads posters encouraging him to burst out of the closet and be the person that he truly is. The problem? He doesn’t know who he is! He doesn’t like men. He doesn’t like women. In a world of rainbows, he feels gray.

Conversely, his roommate, Nick Peters, is openly gay. Sort of. Like so many students, he hides his identity around his family and embraces his queerness on the campus. Leigh helps him tie a rainbow flag to the back of his wheelchair. He tries to write an article for the school newsletter about the intersections of being queer and disabled. He wants to go to the events hosted by the student club, aptly named The Queer Community. Unfortunately, these events are often inaccessible and downright hostile. The president of the club—a queer man named Keith—is That Student Leader who talks over everyone else. He makes blunt bi-erasure and ally-exclusionary comments. When the black vice-president, Amanda, and the Latinx trans treasurer, Julio, motion to add the brown and black stripe to their logo, he launches into a five-minute monologue about preserving the sanctity of the original colors. You get the idea.

Leigh helps Nick navigate this exclusionary environment, literally helping him wheel through an inaccessible pride event. Both are uncomfortable being in such an overstimulating crowd, but they force themselves to have a good time, enjoying each other’s company. They get back to their dorm. They go to sleep. They wake up to hundreds of messages. Someone took a photo of them laughing in a nondescript moment. Said photo went viral, overnight, as people of all genders and sexualities (and lack thereof) fawn over the couple that's queer and "interabled". God, I hate that word and the fetishization of: “One person stands??? The other sits???”

What follows is pandemonium. Nick is invited to give a speech about how disabled people are often excluded from queer spaces, a speech that generates change. Maybe they can make something positive out of this? Granted it’s uncomfortable but—oh god, is it uncomfortable. There’s fanart. Fanfiction. Hashtags. #Team Lick. (“Team … what?”) A radio talkshow host, L.N., gives them both scholarships. The president of the university invites them to a fancy dinner. The leader of the student club is pissed that they’re getting so much attention; attention that neither of them wanted in the first place!

Leigh tries to tell everyone that he’s not gay but no one listens. When he goes home for Thanksgiving, his mom's replaced his blanket with a rainbow tapestry, and his dad gives him a revamped sex talk. Nick’s family shuns him, which was the reason he was never out. They both face varying levels of harassment from all sides. They can’t even eat, together, without a photo being snapped. When everyone realizes that they aren’t dating, Nick receives multiple ableist comments, all while Leah is accused of being ableist by the same people who refused to make the queer spaces accessible, to begin with!

Watching the World Cup prematch as a presenter mentions the USA team being in the round of 16 makes him proud to be an American.

I believe pride, fear, hate, & greed are the modern horsemen of our apocalypse.

11 of the 26 players on the USA team are 1st generation citizens. If our ruling political party had its way, they wouldn’t be here or playing for the USA.