'What does it mean to be gay?' A seemingly simple question, but one that's not often asked. With Los Angeles Gay Pride starting this Friday, various gay folks give us their answers in a weeklong series.

Robin McGehee is director and co-founder of Get Equal, a grassroots gay rights group based in California. A mother of two children, she is considered one of the new leading voices in the gay rights movement. McGehee shares her thoughts:

With each year that passes, many of us celebrate what has been coined as LGBT Pride Month. We get our rainbow flags out, meet up with our friends and hopefully family, and head out to one if not more of the annual Pride events to march or just hang out at the festivals that celebrate our community…

When recently asked the question “What does it mean to be gay?” I thought of that yearly tradition and how we are so much more than just an event.

Personally, I shy away from using the term “gay,” as I feel we are lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and many other intersectional labels in between.

It means we are a people who have been called to look beyond ourselves and fight for the marginalized “other.”

It means we must push ourselves to not only celebrate with pride our identity, but stand on the shoulders of the activists who came before us and demand our dignity, which will only come through full and equal protections and access under the law.

Read essays by Robert V. Taylor, Michael Weinstein, and Tim Sullivan.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

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