I have a friend who’s gay but doesn’t really like the whole pride culture thing. He was complaining about it to me, and basically saying that he thought it was really cringe and just aggravated the reactionaries. I broke it down for him that, at least imo, rights aren’t something that’s guaranteed. The long history of civil rights struggles shows again and again that you must always be willing to assert your rights, because if you don’t, the reactionaries are happy to take them from you.
Yep, never let anyone convince you that free expression is just “provoking people”. Those people want to be angry, and people in power want to use that anger for their own gains.
Don’t be quiet and submissive to those ends - express harder.
That’s literally why Pride parades and queer culture is often so aggressively “out” - they are moving the goal posts back.
Reactionaries will continue to react to anything they don’t like, so keep pushing that envelope until the things they’re reacting to are the aggressive displays of pride instead of the innocent and vulnerable who are just trying to live their lives.