I’m indifferent about the gay pride parade just like different religions. Happens 1x a year in a controlled environment called a parade. You have the freedom to attend or not.
Food for thought.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.red...nk_the_pride_parade_enforces_stereotypes_and/
1 -
Pride is about way more than guys in speedos and glitter. I feel this is often the view of people who haven't actually attended Pride, but are basing their views from what they have seen on the news. I have been to plenty of Pride parades and festivals and they are very diverse. You have political floats. Activist groups. Military vets / members. Pro-gay religious groups. Affinity groups (e.g. African American LGBTs). Regional groups. And yes, guys in speedos with glitter or leather with whips. We live in a culture that loves the outlandish, so news stations will always focus on the drag performers or scantily dressed men.
However, anyone who says Pride is mostly guys in speedos throwing glitter is simply revealing they haven't actually attended. That's a small sliver of Pride. Yet for some people it's all they can see.
2 - Pride is about acceptance or at least tolerance for everyone, not just mainstream gays. I am "lucky" in terms of naturally being a "mainstream gay." I'm am a masculine, sports loving, beer drinking gay white male who is middle/upper class and is from California. My need to be part of the counter-culture is nearly non-existent. However, Pride wasn't about creating visibility for "straight acting," monogamous, rich white men. It's not about saying, "I got mine, so let's pack it up and call it a day." Pride is about showing self-actualization and visibility for all members of the LGBT community. Not just for me, but for the very flamboyant gays. For transgender men and women. For LGBT people who are also racial minorities. For the big ole, leather wearing bears, who have every right to be as proud of their bodies as the Ambercrombie-modeleque twinks. Limiting Pride to the easily assimilated because it makes life "easier" on butch gays like me completely misses the point. We thrive or fail as a community. We don't leave others behind, just because some of us have gained enough acceptance, it would be more convenient to become the bullies and ridicule those who simply can't blend into society as easily as we do.
3 - Pride may change over time, but it's unfair and wrong to shove the trailblazers back in the proverbial closet. I am lucky to be in a very healthy relationship, where my boyfriend and I have even talked about the possibility of getting married in a couple of years. Even 10 years ago, that would have been a nearly impossible dream. 30 years ago people were still being beaten, jailed and tortured just for being LGBT. I have done a lot of activism and while I prefer the more mundane, traditional approaches, I have worked with LGBT people in their 40s-70s who were leaders and pioneers in a much more dangerous time. These trailblazers fought against discrimination and formed Pride to celebrate being who they were and embracing both the ways they were just like everyone else (despite being LGBT) and they ways they were different (and would not be forced to just blend in). 10 years ago, you didn't have families going to Pride. Now, Pride is becoming a very mainstream event. And it's easy to say to the pioneers, "thank you for being abused, jailed or worse so that I could have a 'normal life,' but now that I am accepted, you need to go away. thank you for teaching me to respect myself, but the younger LGBTs and our straight friends don't want to see your 60 year old shirtless selves throwing glitter and singing show tunes." It would be ungrateful, wrong and a complete perversion of what Pride has been historically or the role is has played (and still should play) in the community.
So this may not completely change your mind as the glitter boys in short shorts and leather daddies singing Over the Rainbow certainly doesn't endear us to our enemies. As the saying goes, "haters gonna hate." And a skinny twink eating a banana and wearing skimpy clothing or a drag queen caked in makeup provides great confirmation bias for anyone who is looking for an excuse to dislike LGBT people. However, the very nature of confirmation bias means that these people will find a reason to hate us whether Pride happens or not. And whether Pride is a bunch of "straight-acting" gays or fabulous, flamboyant queens. So we are better off accepting each other and embracing the whole community, rather than trying to force those who are "gayer" than we are to conform out of fear that straight people who might accept us mainstream gays might associate us with the less accepted parts of our community.
Why is it OK for Pride participants to display themselves sexually and perform sex acts upon each other as the floats travel down the street? But, if I had sex with someone in public, I would be charged with indecency violations? Aren't we all equal under the law?
Apparently not.
Wynne is a piece of shit, who eats pussy at night and then goes to work the next day, enters a Mosque, and submits to the power and practice of Islam.
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