Dreamer Wrote:I don't see anything wrong with gay pride parades.
It consists of a community celebrating one part of themselves that unites them, one little part that many in this world are still scared of... one big part that many who attend those parades otherwise suppress and hide during every other day of each year... so fucking what if they have one celebratory event to attend that comprises of hundreds to thousands of others just like them, where they can feel safe and "at home" to be themselves 100%? That sense of community can, have, and will continue to open minds and save lives.
Straight people have celebrated their sexualities from the early beginnings of man-kind to up until right now in every microscopic aspect of everyday life, and it's rubbed in my face everywhere I turn... TV, music, commercials, advertisements, on the streets, in the stores I go to, not to mention their own celebrations like Mardi Gras, etc.... we have one silly parade, once a year, in cities across the world.... with that in consideration, who are the "extreme" ones?
Where's the gay organization in which I can join opposed to hetero pride extremism?
Congratulations on thinking you'd have the inner-strength to hypothetically deal with every form of gay discrimination and oppression that exists all by yourself, but many people can't and shouldn't have to go it alone, or accept it without fighting back.... many who try end up 6 ft in the ground by either their own hand or that of another.
If gay pride parades aren't for you, don't watch or attend one.
Your sense of embarrassment has nothing to do with gay pride celebrations, but everything to do with you alone.
What started out as pride parades years and years ago, have turned into nothing more than stereotyped, pigeonholed, inflammatory, and degrading spectacles of obscenity and blatant "gimmicky advertisements".
There is NOTHING about these "parades" that have anything to do with pride, in any way, shape, or form.
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I say do whatever makes you happy. If that's dressing up in sequence and dancing, fucking do it. Don't let anyone stop you. If you feel that you were meant to be a different gender than the one that's expected of you, fucking be that. When we fight amongst ourselves it hurts all of us.
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The real problem is people who react to the people in pride parades. They are not harming anyone. live and let be.
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The thing that amuses me is that people think that it is extreme behaviour that only happens at the parades.
That stuff happens all the time in bars and clubs.
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I see no problem with gay pride parades. They may be a bit over the top for me, personally, but I remember when I was just coming out, and still very unsure of myself and vulnerable, making plans to go downtown on the day of the parade to see what it was about. I didn't so much look at the parade itself, as the hundreds of people of all ages lining the streets cheering for the people in the parade. That was something I will hold dear for the rest of my life, most likely. This helped my sense of pride in myself, but you'll never catch me in my underwear in the parade.
Some parts of it are lewd, to a degree, but there are also a lot of more reserved people who take part too. Couples who walk hand in hand, wearing a normal amount of clothes. Veterans who have come out late in life standing tall with their partners, and many other groups. You focus on a small part of what is in the parades, and ignore the things that really matter: the Pride people get from feeling accepted.
Here in Montreal, the parade usually takes place at the end of a week long celebration of diversity, and equality.
And finally, at the end of the day, why should you care how other people enjoy themselves? You think they should conform to your idea of proper conduct, and that is almost the same as the people who would rather we all just went away.
Anyone who thinks the scantily clad people in the parades are what make a gay person are just ignorant, and never seek to actually learn anything at all about us. Some might be like that, and more power to them. It does not mean, by any stretch, that that particular part of the parade speaks for all the LGBT community.
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Didn't I make a thread about this a while ago only about Disney World? Anyway, my opinion hasn't really changed.
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Undreamt Wrote:That stuff happens all the time in bars and clubs.
Yes, but bars and clubs are not in the media or in the public eye...
OK, so Dreamer called me conservative....yes I am (a fierce opponent of right-wingers/religious hierarchs/bourgeois oligarchs, and other classical conservative elites, though). I don't see why does that have to be taken with a tone that says "ugh....conservative"
He also said I should be ashamed of myself for feeling embarrasment...I cannot see why, I differ from your opinion but I'm not telling you to feel bad for having it, why should I? Slow down there, mister, not everyone thinks alike.
Orphan Pip said there's bashing going on here...clearly he did not read the comments, as neither side in this debate has incurred in any bashing.
Other folks have said that gay parades are not all about the flamboyance...
it's true, but whatever happens there that is positive and mild, hardly gets into the media...
I don't have a problem with people doing whatever it is they want, I just have an issue with the results of what is seen in the media: the sexuality, the flamboyance, the crazyness which only might help to fuel homophobia and takes away the positive aspects of such events..
Others have said that straights have their own lude events...true, then again it's not straight folks the ones who are fighting for the right to marry.....if one is to be accepted, having a bad image doesn't help. It's highly unfair but it's reality.
I happen to agree with East in that that H.O.P.E. is not really a good idea to consider being run by a homophobe..really...we have enough problemas as it is to let that kind of person to succeed
I will say this, I was thoroughly happy when I noticed this a few years ago.......this is the kind of stuff I hoped the media would focus in...
http://naytinalbert.blogspot.com/2010/06...-i-am.html
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southbiochem Wrote:, but whatever happens there that is positive and mild, hardly gets into the media...
That is true, but is it a reason to be submitted to how media manipulate public opinions about gayprides? Media are guilty. It's not a reason to blame GP, IMHO.
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In reality you are correct...but perception makes for reality rather than reality itself..
yes, the intolerant perception of the homophobic populace and the things that get displayed by the media are the responsibility of those folks, not the LGBTs..
but the overall effect is to damage the LBGT community...
it's a sad thing: reality is not reality (that is: people enjoying the freedom of being who they are) but perception is reality (whatever gets displayed in flamboyance, lude behavior, etc)
It has always been that way with the media.......the failure to understand that and to exercise some form of self-control to avoid the media manipulation, will only damage LGBT rights...maybe not in historically more liberal France or Sweden, but certainly in more conservative countries such as my own..
I so wish it wasn't that way....
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Okay i read an article, it made sense to me… I said I was going to find out more about this HOPE… I never claimed to admire an individuals, my thoughts are fiercely independent and I do not blindly follow others ideals but i can appreciate some of it.
do I believe HOPE is anti-gay… NO. Its a gay organization.
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H.O.P.E (homosexuals opposed to pride extremism)
