Ben Appel is a writer based in New York. His forthcoming memoir is 'Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic'. Follow him on Twitter @benappel.

Everywhere around me, I see Pride flags. 'It's time to celebrate the LGBT community!' I'm told. But, this year, as a gay man, I'm not proud of my so-called 'community.'

In fact, I'm horrified by it.

Two decades ago, when I attended my first Pride parade, the LGBT world truly needed it. Pride is the opposite of shame. And for decades, even centuries, gay people had been told to be ashamed of ourselves, of our same-sex attraction, and our supposed inability to behave like 'normal' people.