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Archive for June 13, 2008

gay portland pride replay

June 13, 2008 by p00ky.

Tis the season again, eh…. and yeah, opinions are like assholes… we all got em…. here they are all valued, and here are a couple of em lifted from our previous blog… to fuel the fire:)

Sam Bach said…

Okay, so I’ll play the devil to gdfather’s Daniel Webster…. I haven’t ever been involved in Pride, but I’ve attended a dozen or so of them, and have been going since before I came out to myself. Sure, the drag queens leave a more lasting visual impression, but there are plenty of “normal-looking” folks - both gay and straight - out there as well.I don’t know… perhaps I credit most people with the brains to know that homosexuals aren’t all alike, and that should be bolstered by seeing the variety of groups one sees at Pride: gay parents, two-wheeled women, leather boys, gay geeks, gay jocks, religious gays, etc.

Pride has long been as much a show as a message. If there are things on offer that you find enjoyable, go ahead and have some fun; if not, then don’t. I don’t care for parades, so I tend to avoid them… and there are LOTS of parades to avoid in Portland in June! But I enjoy going down to the waterfront and talking to people, seeing what is on offer at the various booths, and so on.

6/27/2006 11:54:00 AM

Toronto 2006…. or AnyTown, Universe.

Gide said…

I have spoken with youngins on the subject of gaypride, and with older folk who are newly “out”, and sooner or later they often express a feeling that is not unakin to something like “self-affirming” in their description of the experience. Rather than question the fabric of a fragile ego (we all have em, eh), I tend to hold a genuine respect for this emotion. The concept of a “gay culture” remains conceptual, if that, and to the extend that it holds a reality it does not always percolate down to the individual - who has endured self-examination, doubts, personal rejection, family rejection, and on and on. I have seen a joyful giddiness in the eyes of gay folk who, at some level, take enormous solace in the comfort of the company of kindred souls. At another level, there are those of us who look forward to the event as a venue to renew old friendships and acquaintances, with regard and a tear to the void that exists, the spaces created by friends lost.Even this most public event permeates the personal, and a greater health ensues.

It is worthy of mention in passing that gaypride is also one hell of a good party:) Which is reason enough to justify almost anything.

Sam is correct… gaypride Is both a show and a message… and both show and message are for the choir, and the congregation, as well as for the nonbelievers. I doubt there is a faggot among us who has not at least read the roots of “Pride” in Stonewall , nor do I pretend to know the extent of the minds and hearts of the participants of Stonewall in the spontaneity of a reaction to systematic and life-long oppression.

An elementary posit in Sociology 101 (which i never took) is that a vociferous fringe element expands the parameters of acceptable behavior. Thru blood, sweat, and tears, the parameters of GLBT’s (i know, it sounds like a delightful sandwich) “behavior” has gained considerable acceptance since the days of Stonewall. That “behavior”, however, is one of sexual and romantic love…. If homosexuality were a matter of caritas, I doubt we would be having this discussion.

I admire assless-chaps as much as the next faggot (with a modicum of aesthetics), but (pun intended), if the next battle is in the courts, driven largely now by a wet finger (lub it) reading the winds of the political climate, might the gaypride exposition serve to further entrench the already alienated, and possibly, just possibly, narrow the hard-won expansion of the minds that have come to accept the concept of equality?

6/30/2006 08:52:00 PM

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