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Thursday, June 13, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION
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ERIN WHITE
Editorial Page Editor
Zack Blumberg
Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz
Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram
Jeremy Kaplan
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland
Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Alex Satola
Timothy Spurlin
Nicholas Tomaino
Erin White
Ashley Zhang
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.