Pride Month Never Replaced Our Veterans
It's a big calendar, folks.
[This blog will always be free to read, but it’s also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And if this is too big of a commitment, I’m always thankful for a simple cup of coffee. And yes, I’m available for Pride Month speaking engagements.]
Every year, Pride Month comes with renewed efforts by anti-LGBTQ extremists to downplay, diminish, and undermine its importance. Sad, insecure clowns—mostly straight men (some of them likely closeted)—flood the zone to feed each other outrage and claim the Queer Agenda is out to destroy them all.
This year is certainly no different.
Amidst all the wonderful Pride posts online from sports teams and companies and elected officials, there’s been a widespread effort by extremists to claim our military and veterans and their families are being ignored and that June should be solely dedicated to honoring them, not the LGBTQ community.
As a queer person and proud military veteran, I find this all quite curious. Truth be told, I can’t help but find it amusing. Are these people unaware of the sheer calendar space dedicated to our nation’s women and men who have served and are currently serving?
Most folks know about Memorial Day (the last Monday in May, dedicated to those who made the ultimate sacrifice) and Veterans Day (Nov. 11th, dedicated to all who have served), but those are just the tip of the iceberg.
Let’s start with the easy ones: the month-long observances.
April is Month of the Military Child.
May is both National Military Appreciation Month and Month of the Military Caregiver.
June is PTSD Awareness Month, which isn’t exclusively for the military and veterans but obviously has a pretty strong military connection.
November is both Veterans & Military Family Month and Warrior Care Month.
Then you have the long list of specific day observances throughout the year.
There are the military branch and component birthdays/observances: Army (June 14th), Army Reserve (April 23rd), Navy (Oct. 13th), Navy Reserve (March 3rd), Air Force (Sept. 18th) Air Force Reserve (April 14th), Marine Corps (Nov. 10th), Marine Corps Reserve (Aug. 29th), Coast Guard (Aug. 4th), Coast Guard Auxiliary (June 23rd), National Guard (Dec. 13th), and Civil Air Patrol (Dec. 1st).
There are the various days specifically honoring military families, caregivers, and surviving loved ones: Gold Star Spouses Day (April 5th), National Military Brats Day (April 30th), Military Spouse Appreciation Day (Friday before Mothers Day), Children of Fallen Patriots Day (May 13th), Gold Star Mother’s Day (last Sunday in September), National Day of the Deployed (Oct. 26th), and—because families carry the greatest burden here, I’ll include it in this section—National POW/MIA Recognition Day (third Friday in September).
There are the days honoring those who earned specific military decorations: National Medal of Honor Day (March 25th), Silver Star Service Banner Day (May 1st), and National Purple Heart Day (Aug. 7th).
There are the days honoring specific groups of veterans and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice: K-9 Veterans Day (March 13th), National Vietnam War Veterans Day (March 29th), National Former POW Recognition Day (April 9th), V-E Day (May 8th), Women Veterans Day (June 12th), National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day (July 27th), National Buffalo Soldiers Day (July 28th), Agent Orange Awareness Day (Aug. 10th), Navajo Code Talkers Day (Aug. 14th), V-J Day (Sept. 2nd), and National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (Dec. 7th).
Outside of those distinct categories, there are some others: Four Chaplins Day (Feb. 3rd), USO Birthday (Feb. 4th), National Salute to Veteran Patients (week of Feb. 12th), Seabee Birthday (March 5th), American Legion Birthday (March 15th), National Rosie the Riveter Day (March 21st), National Hire a Veteran Day (July 25th), Department of Defense Birthday (Aug. 10th), National Airborne Day (Aug. 16th), Veterans of Foreign Wars Day (Sept. 29th), and Wreaths Across America Day (Dec. 18th).
Oh, and Armed Forces Day (May 20th), which falls at the end of Armed Forces Week (which begins on May 13th).
I hope I didn’t miss any?
At least 120 days on the American calendar are dedicated to honoring our military, fallen service members, veterans, and their families — about a third of the full year.
I think that’s great. I think that’s necessary. Our military, our veterans, and their families deserve that recognition.
I also think that’s ironic given how much our military, our veterans, and their families are left behind in this country when it comes to health care, housing, education, and so many other areas which it seems Donald Trump and the Republican Party willfully ignore.
Maybe we need a National Lip Service to Military Appreciation Day, recognizing politicians and their supporters who only seem to truly appreciate the military when it can be used as a cudgel against people they hate.
The past five months have seen members of the military and veterans who are women, Black people, people of color generally, and LGBTQ people broadly erased from any recognition by the Trump Administration and the Department of Defense specifically.
This month, thousands of transgender service members and their families will be kicked out, their lives uprooted, their service cruelly degraded, their characters slandered, all because of a senseless and bigoted policy created to placate anti-trans extremists, signed by a coward who avoided military service.
I’m proud of my service and grateful to all who have served and their families, and there’s plenty of time throughout the year to express that.
June is all for LGBTQ people, veterans and non-veterans alike.
Let us have our month.
If you’d like to support LGBTQ veterans running for office, please donate to LPAC, the nation’s only organization solely dedicated to electing LGBTQ women at every level, many of whom have served our country in uniform.
Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/charlotteforlpac
I never knew there was a Rosie the Riverter Day! This is quite a litany of celebrations, and well worth recognizing. That said, HAPPY PRIDE 🌈!
You forget the uncountable times every one of us hears the appreciated and mildly annoying "thank you for your service" EVERY time we use a discount. One more pride parade, and there won't be enough time on anyone's calendar to repeat that phrase at the register. How will us vets go on in a world like that?