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Thursday, June 13, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

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Zack Blumberg
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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. 
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

CASSANDRA MANSUETTI
Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

O

n May 16, the series 
finale of “The Big Bang 
Theory” aired. I didn’t 
have time to catch it, nor would 
I have had the ability to follow 
along, as I haven’t properly 
followed 
the 
show 
since 
high school. “The Big Bang 
Theory” — plot aside — was an 
interesting show. I always sort 
of saw it as the TV version of 
President Richard Nixon — no 
one knew anyone who voted 
for Nixon yet he won back to 
back landslides. I don’t know 
many people who advertise the 
fact they watch “The Big Bang 
Theory” and yet it ran for over 
a decade.
Still, once it occurred to 
me that this was truly the 
last hurrah for the cast, I will 
admit to feeling slightly sad, 
not because of what the show 
was, but because of what it 
meant to me. I used to watch 
it in high school, and started 
doing so after a friend of mine 
mentioned his sister worked on 
the show as a writer. “The Big 
Bang Theory,” to me, was less 
about the adventures of Sheldon 
and Penny and more about the 
fact that it was a core part of 
my Thursday night ritual. My 
mom usually worked late, and 
my sister was at the University 
of San Diego, so I was already 
doing dinner by myself one day a 
week. “The Big Bang Theory” fit 
in very nicely in that it enabled 
me to break the steady sounds of 
my eating reheated ravioli.

In those days, I would go to 
my dad’s house every other 
weekend, so after he would pick 
me up on Friday from school 
and take me home, we’d usually 
rewatch “The Big Bang Theory” 
with a bowl of hot Cheeto Puffs 
and a glass of ice-cold Coca-
Cola. 
The 
aforementioned 
friend (as well as many, many 
others) was always willing 
to watch that show with me 
during tutorial in high school, 
but it has been a while since I’ve 
been a real fan. 
I’m going to be a senior in 
college and the last time I 
watched a full season as it aired 
rather than binging it in a day 
was when I was in high school, 
and the last time I sat and 
actually paid attention to a full 
episode was on a plane. So then 
why did I care that it was over? 
More than anything else, 
“The Big Bang Theory” ending 
was yet another thread from my 
past being closed off. I know that 
we can’t live in our memories, 
but it is always nice to have 
something tangible connecting 
us to the past. TV played a role 
in my childhood — I remember 
watching shows with friends, 
but a lot of those have ended and 
we are stuck with reruns, which 
seems like a solid parable of the 
times. Now, when I come home 
for summer expecting to make 
new memories with my friends, 
not many of them come back 
at all. So I’m stuck watching 
reruns and imagining things as 

they once were.
A lot of the shows that I used 
to watch with my friends in high 
school have ended for good — 
“Parks and Rec,” “The Office,” 
“Outsourced,” 
“How 
I 
Met 
Your Mother” and now, finally, 
“The Big Bang Theory.” I can’t 
say I’m unhappy about this — 
I would rather they end with 
dignity rather than needing 
to be taken out back and shot 
between the eyes. But it is still 
a bit surreal to know that your 
entire TV schedule from only 
a few years now exists only in 
your memories.
“The 
Big 
Bang 
Theory” 
represented a consistency to 
me which is something that 
only happened because of how 
long it was on the air for. It was 
one unbroken thread weaving 
through high school, family 
drama and college success, as 
well as failure. It tied me to my 
past, for better or worse, and 
was there for me when I needed 
it. When I transferred to a new 
school and had no friends to 
eat dinner with, I always knew 
Sheldon and Leonard would 
be down for Thai (even if it 
was from No Thai instead of 
Siam Palace). But eventually, 
I needed them less and less 
as I made new friends, and it 
couldn’t have ended at a better 
time. Thanks for all the laughs, 
and laugh tracks.

ANIK JOSHI | COLUMN

Anik Joshi can be reached at 

anikj@umich.edu.

Saying goodbye to ‘The Big Bang Theory’

I

t’s June and anyone in or arouund 
the LGBTQ+ community knows 
that it is Pride Month. Our social 
media feeds, Uber apps and college 
campuses become more rainbow-col-
ored and we hear a bit more from our 
favorite queer celebrities, politicians 
and friends.
But Pride is about more than 
retweeting a few Pride-related tweets 
and stories. It’s about more than order-
ing a pair of rainbow spandex and a 
sports bra for Pride and posing with 
your queer friend. It’s even about more 
than supporting your LGBTQ+ friends.
Please don’t get me wrong. We 
appreciate your support. But being an 
ally is about more than going to a Pride 
parade once a year. Your participation 
in Pride shouldn’t be confined only 
to June; Pride is for every month. It’s 
about recognizing what continues to 
hold back the LGBTQ+ community and 
helping to mitigate those problems.
Chosen to honor the 1969 Stonewall 
Riots, this month celebrates the incred-
ible resilience, determination, diver-
sity and of course pride of the LGBTQ+ 
community. Pride celebrates where the 
community is today, but even more so 
it honors the sacrifice and dedication of 
those who preceded us and have paved 
the way for the rights we now have. 
Pride month is intended to set aside 
time for everyone — not just LGBTQ+ 
people — to reflect on history and cel-
ebrate progress. It is about recogniz-
ing that, despite accomplishments the 
community has made, there are still 
important strides to be taken.
It’s easy to forget that much of the 
progress the LGBTQ+ community has 
achieved has been extremely recent. 
Attitudes on same-sex marriage shift-
ed at unprecedented rates in America 
with increased visibility of LGBTQ+ 
individuals in social and celebrity cir-
cles. In 2004, only 31 percent of Ameri-
cans supported gay marriage. By 2017, 
public support skyrocketed to 62 per-
cent (it dropped down to 61 percent in 
2019, representing the first decrease in 
public support since 2009).
Furthermore, public opinion among 
college students and the rest of the 
country — specifically older, rural and 
conservative Americans — differs dras-
tically, as perceptions of queer normal-
ization and acceptance skew liberally 
in places like Ann Arbor. The accep-
tance we see in our day-to-day lives as 
students is uncharacteristic of the rest 
of the country. As of 2019, only 44 per-
cent of Republicans support gay mar-
riage (up from 19 percent in 2004, but 
down from 47 percent in 2017). Even 
among Democrats, only 75 percent 
favor gay marriage (up from 43 percent 
from 2004, and down from 76 percent 

in 2017, following the pattern of slightly 
declining support in recent years). 
Broadly speaking, support for LGBTQ+ 
individuals is stronger in urban areas, 
but falls behind in rural areas.
Ann Arbor is wonderfully accepting 
of members of the LGBTQ+ commu-
nity, earning an 100 on the Municipal 
Equality Index, the Human Rights 
Campaign’s review and subsequent 
rating of a city’s municipal laws, poli-
cies and services for LGBTQ+ resi-
dents. Living in a place like Ann Arbor, 
discrimination feels far removed from 
our lives, with the blame often falling 
wholly on the far-right. But it’s defi-
nitely not just about the radical con-
servatives we read about. In fact, the 
average score for the nation is 55 and 
the average score for Michigan is still 
only 69. Concerns about the highly con-
centrated population of liberal wealthy 
academics in Ann Arbor are entirely 
valid. However, communities where 
non-heteronormative 
lifestyles 
are 
normalized and respected, and where 
members of the LGBTQ+ community 
can live and work free of discrimina-
tion, are not actually so common, even 
in 2019. 
The majority of states still do not 
have protections against discrimina-
tion on the basis of sexual orientation 
or gender identity in the workplace, 
public accommodation and hous-
ing. Many states protect religious 
freedom over sexual identity, legally 
allowing refusal of service based on 
religious beliefs against homosexual-
ity. Transphobia continues to thrive 
in America, especially with the 
recent onslaught of transphobic pol-
icy from the Trump administration.
Don’t stop posting your Insta-
gram stories. Don’t stop retweet-
ing the ACLU. Don’t stop going to 
Pride. But if you do, don’t stop when 
June ends. Educate yourself on the 
issues that impact LGBTQ+ Ameri-
cans. Support your queer friends 
— beyond just posting pictures with 
them at a parade one Sunday a year. 
Learn about their experiences with 
discrimination. Go beyond vocally 
supporting queer lifestyles: make 
an active effort to normalize them. 
Identify your pronouns. If you can, 
donate to organizations that support 
LGBTQ+ rights. Organizations like 
the ACLU, Human Rights Campaign 
and Planned Parenthood are great, 
but there are a plethora of organi-
zations that do terrific work. And 
please, tell your local frat bro to stop 
saying, “That’s gay,” because it’s not 
2007 anymore.

Pride is more than a parade

OLIVIA TURANO | COLUMN

Olivia Turano can be reached at 

turnaroo@umich.edu.

