LGBT News What are your thoughts on gay pride parades?

I don't know much about pride parades other than they cater mostly to gay males, and when the cater to gay females, it's in an offensive manner ("dyke marches"). I have to put an offensive label on myself in order to march with a bunch of pervy, older lesbians who'll mistake me for a 20 year old? No thank you.

I can't imagine what the bi or trans marches look like... I don't think I want to know.

 

I've heard they are very inappropriate. Maybe we could host lgbt conventions, where deviancy can be more easily monitored or controlled for the more family oriented members of the community.

 

I love gay pride. There is much individuality and pride and love. I love seeing the drag queens perform and seeing their individuality. I mean some people just go to pride to get their "gay" on and they would it anywhere else because they would feel insecure. I praise any man who can walk on stage and perform in drag. It is a great part of our culture and love everything about our gay culture. Hell if I had the guts I would wear tight woman jeans and a tight shirt any day and I probably will. I know some people dislike that gay pride brings out every stereotype but I am so proud to be a gay man i could less. If it works for you it works for me. Get your pride on

 

I've never been to one but I've heard this topic come up alot and you always get the same responses. Yes there may be some inappropriate behaviour from very few people but the majority of the crowd are not inappropriate at all.
In my city it is a 10 day event with family events, charity work etc... Not just a March.

 

We take our family every single year, including the Grandparents. I can tell not to many here have been to one. It does not center around nudity, sex or males. In fact, they usually start with a parade, with supporters such as car companies, airways, businesses, and then often will throw in Femininsts, Trans rights, churches that are supportive gay bars, gay singers, marching bands, Queens, etc. Then, the fest itself starts, which is just like any other art fest. There are booths from ACLU, Planned parenthood, a few Vegan or vegetarian ones, gay owned businesses, various gay friendly businesses, gay t-shirt and jewelry, and other decorative items, one or more Femininst booth and other political booths. There are stages with gay bands and choirs, Drag Queen shows, dancing and of course a beer tent. There are usually keynote speakers, on how our rights are progressing and problems facing the gay community also. There are 'family' areas, and 'childrens' areas with face painting, games and things kids can do. There are food booths with various types of foods and deserts. So, it's not just a parade with naked people, Dykes or people looking to get laid. It's a celebration of who we are and how far we have come. Every June, our family devotes the month to going all over the state and attending.

If you are looking for a sex fest, try Folsom Street Fair. It's for leather and S and M lovers. In California. I have friends that attend yearly. That is where I would never take my child! LOL

 

As a resident of NYC, I feel that I can speak from experience that NYC pride is a very family friendly event - it's not about people having sex on the streets or anything like that! I think that you'd find that it's unappealing for other reasons, and that (to me) is blatant commercialism.

 

As always:

[YOUTUBE]0_OQeA3GiRw[/YOUTUBE]

 

LOL I've never been to it. But I saw a depiction of it in an HBO series called Looking. Lots of guys/gals dressed in leather. And it's crowded. Um yeah, that's not exactly a kid-friendly place

 

I think people tend to take a minute or two of B-roll compiled by people who want either to make pride parades seem more interesting than they are (best case) or more shocking and appalling than they are (the general case) and assume that it's representative of all the parades out there. I think it's painfully obvious that most of the people on this site who criticize pride parades have never been to one. Ours here in Chicago is one of the largest events in the state--almost a million people have attended each of the past few years. Many of the people who attend are straight and frankly there are a lot of children. It lasts almost three hours and it's mainly churches, parents, politicians, supportive businesses including many of the largest businesses in the area. There is some scantily clad-ness. No real nudity--but some of the bars will have floats with go-go boys and girls in swimsuits. There are some fun drag queens and a lot of really beautiful men. By far the most heavily cheered groups are PFLAG, some of the churches, occasionally a politician who has done something noteable and anything to do with marriage equality. I assume there will be something big this year in that realm--they just finally legalized it here a week or so ago (by vote, not court ruling). In my experience they are a wonderful event for everyone involved--gay and straight--and certainly do nothing to set back the cause with anyone who has anything but hate in their heart.

 

I'm not really fond of them, but I will defend them against the usual criticisms (too loud, flashy, evil-nudity, get-it-out-of-my-face, what-if-the-heterosexuals-did-this). There are problems with them, but overall I think they're fine.

However, the super-sexual acts should probably be separated from the ordinary stuff - there is a limit to what kids should see, as they won't really understand some of the more kinky stuff. :lol: Perhaps those should be reserved for later in the day, with more chaste (not excluding nudity; it's fine in itself) things coming first, such as the families, drag queens, people who come in their underwear but don't do anything really sexual, student groups etc.

 

I'm not even going to read the thread because I care about my mental health, and because I know there is or will be oppressive bullshit in it that will raise my blood pressure.

I dress up appropriately, which is to say covered. However, I am genderqueer and I don't pass well, so I appear to be a "crossdresser." As such, I fall uncomfortably into the criticisms raised by the more authoritarian, conservative, and assimilationist parts of the gay and lesbian community (yes, gay and lesbian community; because I never find myself having to argue with bisexuals and transgender people on this issue, because they get it). I am not going to Pride dressed like the CEO of some corporation or like I am going to church in order to make the rest of you happy.

I reserve the right to defend myself against any claim that I need to dress in any particular way whatsoever, and I will not be told to stay home.

 

I disagree with gay pride parades. It's not the pride that I disagree with, it's those idiots who walk down the streets half naked and exposing almost every inch of their bodies. It really gives a bad example for LGBT people, and gives people who don't know much about us the wrong idea. In a sense, paraders who are ignorant about how they present themselves can make people slightly more homophobic. If someone asks me why I don't go to gay pride parades, I can just show them a picture of what I mean...

Now, don't get me wrong. I'd be all in for pride parades if everyone dresses appropriately. I don't hold it against those who do. But uh... the small group of people ruin it for me. Sorry.

This is solely my opinion.

 

I honestly don't have anything to add. This comes up every freakin' year. In short, I think Lipstick Leuger and OGS wrote everything that needs to be written. Of course, the post by Jonathan which is the video of Harvey... well... he said everything that needs to be said. I also think RainbowMan makes a good point about commercialization.

It's incredibly frustrating to see people constantly say things in total ignorance. It's very clear that the vast majority of people who have a problem with Pride are parroting stuff that either mommy and daddy told them, or are speaking from a place of insecurity based off of what the straight media has told them. Of course, it also means that they've never actually attended Pride, which is glaringly obvious to pretty much everyone who knows better.

In the end, Pride pisses off two groups of people. Straight people who get angry because Pride reminds them that queer people exist, and queer people who get all insecure when other queer people are being queer in public. Pride exists precisely because of the first group, and the second group just needs to get over it.

 

Well I guess the only way I'll know is to attend one myself.

 

Agreed on all points. Same arguments against Pride every year, as reliable as salmon swimming upstream. If I want to be really depressed I could go back and see how many of the same people are posting against it every year - while continuing to never actually go and see for themselves :bang:

Oh - and for those who keep nattering on about scantily clad people - have you never heard of this thing called a 'beach'? Or are you shocked and horrified by those too?

*sigh*

Todd

 

I think posts like those by Lipstick Leuger & OGS pretty much sum it up...

I prefer to go to the fest part of Pride (have been multiple times), but have gone to a parade once...it was 2+ hours long & there was everything from gay bars to churches to politicians to local & large businesses to vintage show-cars...(pretty much a bit of everything), and yeah there were some skimpily dressed individuals, but no nudity.

---------- Post added 13th Jun 2014 at 11:08 PM ----------

Actually thats pretty much a good way to describe the (limited number of) skimpily-dressed people - like you'd see at a beach or pool. Really not a big deal.

 

The difference is that most beaches are predominantly heterosexual. Almost as if it's not the nudity that's their problem...

 

With my recent acceptance of my gender ID, I want a rainbow flag and I want to go to one and show my support.


There's one over here where I am on the 28th, but idk if I can even bear to go to one. New events frighten me a bit... That and idk who I can even ask to take me since I can't drive.

 

Not my type of thing. ^.^