It’s Pride Weekend here in Vancouver. Assuming it stops raining, there will be a parade, a festival, fireworks from the finale of the Celebration of Light, and general merrymaking as is wont to occur during a Pride Weekend. Yet this weekend, the celebrations will be diminished—not just by the terrible murder on the bus a couple of days ago, but also by the recent murder of a transwoman in Colorado. Angie Zapata went on a date with a man she had met over the Internet, and upon his discovery that she had personal bits that didn’t match up with what he thought should have been there, he brutally bludgeoned her to death.
On Passover, Jews recount the joyful story of the exodus from Egypt, the journey from slavery to freedom. Yet this freedom came at a price: in the story, God brought ten plagues on the Egyptians—even killing all the firstborn males in the kingdom—before Pharaoh would allow the people to leave the land. During the seder celebrations on the night of Passover, when the ten plagues are recounted, it is a custom among many Jews to spill a drop of wine from their cups, to symbolize the fact that we cannot celebrate with a full cup when that celebration is born of other people’s suffering.
This year, Pride will be celebrated with diminished happiness, with less than a full cup. And so must it be every year, until this kind of hatred is eliminated from the world. Homophobia, transphobia, gynophobia, racism, and all other kinds of intolerance must be swept away so that everyone may one day celebrate with a full cup.