Do you care about Pride?

[Doc]

Sounds like some of you would be better off attending a Shame event rather than a Pride one.

As an outsider looking in, I can see what these guys are talking about. I think it reflects and to an extent justifies the public views of gay culture. Its very tacky and offensive. It would be like a black pride parade where everyone gets on welfare and eats fried chicken and watermelon or an Asian pride event where they do math and eat rice. Ask yourself this, if they were straight people doing this in jest, would you be offended?

[Emiliano]

I'm too drunk to fix this

[Emiliano]

I get that.
But I hear a lot of the same stuff in some of these replies. Its the negativity directed at the same type of gay people - the flamboyant, the fem, the overtly sexual. Not to mention the trans people. Basically, the people who couldn't pass as straight.

For the gay men who can, there's no pride in throwing the more flamboyant people under the bus for the sake of showing straight society how normal and just like them we are. We shouldn't have to be exactly like them, reserved about who we are and be all buttoned up to be accepted, and we shouldn't have to treat pride parades like job interviews. It's a celebration of the diversity that make up the lgbtq community, a protest of being forced to fit into the expectations of straight society, a declaration that we are here and don't have to be silent or blend in.

Does that mean I'm going to rip off my shirt, cover myself in glitter, pick up a rainbow flag, make out with 100 strangers, and wave ny dick in a nun's face? No. I'm not that type of person, I'm very reserved and private about my body and my sex life. But I'm also not made uncomfortable by or ashamed of being part of the same group as men who dress in drag or who like prancing around in speedos, or who are more expressive of their sexuality, or blame them for why gay people aren't universally accepted. If we are only accepted when straight people can't tell we are gay, then that's hardly acceptance at all.

[CellarDweller]

It needs to be remembered that gay pride didn't start as a 'parade', it was started as a protest march that became a yearly event, with the LGBTQI community protesting they way they were being treated, and demanding equal rights.

As for people who are criticizing the more flamboyant, in drag, flag waving participants of the pride events, keep in mind that gay people like you stayed hidden in the closets while the flamboyant ones were on the street at The Stonewall, confronting the police and starting the original riots that lead to us getting the rights we have now.

They are owed respect, not criticism.

[NativeSon]

As an outsider looking in, I can see what these guys are talking about. I think it reflects and to an extent justifies the public views of gay culture. Its very tacky and offensive. It would be like a black pride parade where everyone gets on welfare and eats fried chicken and watermelon or an Asian pride event where they do math and eat rice. Ask yourself this, if they were straight people doing this in jest, would you be offended?

Other than your friends/fam make you uncomfortable, how are you an outsider looking in? I would say you're in the thick of us. Does that make you feel weird?

[NativeSon]

I've been hearing this negative argument as far as I've been attending Pride. I would love to see what this respectable version would consist of. No one's stopping y'all.

[Doc]

wave my dick in a nun's face?

Did this actually happen? or is it just an example.
[MENTION=22821]NativeSon[/MENTION] I am absolutely an outsider, Im closeted and I dont ever want to come out. I have nothing in common with those guys I really reserved and quiet. Im only gay in the loosest sense. Im a conservative person, I have a respectable and clean cut appearance. Im not saying that pride parades are wrong, they just arent for me, I dont feel like I would ever ever fit in those types of gay men and I feel like they would reject me and ridicule me for my beliefs.

[Piri]

Oh, please. If those guys are so proud of wearing a pink wig, or showing their butt with nothing but a leather loincloth, how come you only see that stuff at the gay pride? Why don't they walk around like that every other day, in every other place? The answer is simple: it's just a stupid, old meme, it's the cool thing to do at the gay pride. I have nothing against feminine guys (in fact I didn't even mention feminine men, nor musculine women), or someone who genuinely wants to dress like a woman, but I do have a big problem with a bunch of idiots who feed the stereotype of gays being sexually confused and obsessed with sex, just to satiate their hunger for attention.

I know all too well that it was a transgender woman who started the Stonewall riots, that we must thank many flamboyant gay men for what we have today, and I'm not blaming homophobia on those people, no need to lecture me. If anything, who needs a lecture is those who compare the brave people who fought for our rights with a bunch of crazy perverts who dance almost (sometimes fully) naked and act weird for the sole purpose of having fun. The pride itself is fine, but the gratuitous displays of weirdness and obscenity need to go.

[Emiliano]

Oh, please. If those guys are so proud of wearing a pink wig, or showing their butt with nothing but a leather loincloth, how come you only see that stuff at the gay pride? Why don't they walk around like that every other day, in every other place? The answer is simple: it's just a stupid, old meme, it's the cool thing to do at the gay pride. I have nothing against feminine guys (in fact I didn't even mention feminine men, nor musculine women), or someone who genuinely wants to dress like a woman, but I do have a big problem with a bunch of idiots who feed the stereotype of gays being sexually confused and obsessed with sex, just to satiate their hunger for attention.

I know all too well that it was a transgender woman who started the Stonewall riots, that we must thank many flamboyant gay men for what we have today, and I'm not blaming homophobia on those people, no need to lecture me. If anything, who needs a lecture is those who compare the brave people who fought for our rights with a bunch of crazy perverts who dance almost (sometimes fully) naked and act weird for the sole purpose of having fun. The pride itself is fine, but the gratuitous displays of weirdness and obscenity need to go.

I understand your concerns. Stereotypes and the types of representation gay people have are important and influential in how the broader society sees and treats us. And if most gay people dressed and acted outlandishly and obscenely every day, I'd more likely to be critical of it for those exact reasons.

But Pride parades are parades, and people dress up and seek attention and do weird things at parades. I was at the Mermaid Parade yesterday, that's a crazy one. The Halloween parade gets crazy too, as does the West Indian day parade, or the Puerto Rican day parade. Or think about Mardi Gras/Carnival or the St Patrick's Day parade. People have fun and go crazy for those and then go home and resume their typical lives.

The reasons why gay people are treated like sex crazed perverts for doing the same thing straight people do at parades wouldn't be resolved even if Pride had a business attire, gender conforming dress code.

[Doc]

The reasons why gay people are treated like sex crazed perverts for doing the same thing straight people do at parades wouldn't be resolved even if Pride had a business attire, gender conforming dress code.

We obviously run in different crowds, maybe that behavior okay in NYC but here in the South its different. I dont know how many time Ive heard my friends and family say "What two faggots do in the privacy of their own home is none of my business, but when they do it in front of me then we have a problem". Ive heard that same thing said by enough straight guys that I have to believe there is a kernel of truth to it. People hate what is different and Im sorry to say but if you want acceptance in wider society, then sometimes you have to toe the line. One of the reasons I wont come out is because as soon as I do I know I'll get lumped in with those rainbow warriors in biker gear and probably get the fuck beat out of me for my trouble. Im sure you can see that.