I’m proud and I’m not ashamed of it. Pride attracts a lot of negative responses: it’s named as one of the seven mortal sins in the Christian faith and it’s all too often conflated with egoism and hubris. I will argue that feeling pride is a good thing, a positive response to positive actions and circumstances.

To begin we need to define what pride is, and the first part of that will be to remove any confusion by identifying what it is not. Pride is not the excessive, self-absorbed arrogance of hubris. It is not the over-estimation of one’s own abilities, nor is it the egoistic self-congratulation of the narcissist.

Pride is a recognition of one’s own worth, that deep satisfaction which results from a job well done, an uplifting feeling of self-esteem. Pride is the natural step beyond simple self-acceptance: once you have learned to accept yourself as you are then it follows that you may begin to like yourself, to derive pleasure from aspects of your identity. I put it to you that being proud of who you are, of what you have achieved and what you may be capable of, is an act of love: to love yourself is to feel pride in yourself.

Pride is entirely a positive emotion. It arises when you feel good about yourself, when you feel worthy. It is empowering. In many ways pride is opposite to embarrassment; where embarrassment is the acknowledgment of failure, pride comes from success. Being proud is a celebration.

So when I say I am proud to be autistic, proud to be a trans woman, proud to be Lancastrian and proud to be married to Anne it is an indication of the high value I place on these things and the degree to which they form part of my identity. My pride is my internal celebration of them, my recognition that they shape me and make me the person I am. My pride gives me self-belief and the strength to deny any who would put me down. They cannot belittle me because I know who and what I am and where I come from: I know I’m worth something.