Parades, I do not understand them...

I still think that the best way of decreasing the homophobic population is to make all gay pride parades people in their regular work dress and walk down a road doing nothing other than what they would normally do walking to work, making LGBT persons seem just as boring as persons who aren't.

This is so, say, a hyper conservative christian is flicking through the channels on the tv and he comes to a live airing of a gay pride parade, whether it be on the news or whatever, and, being an curious little hyper conservative christian, he begins to watch said gay pride parade, and gets bored after 20 seconds, and he thinks to himself, 'huh, gay people do suprisingly normal things like listening to music and checking the time... So why am I persecuting them for the false stereotype that they are all crazies who dress up in giant penis costumes and rub against each other, when it has no bearing in reality at all.'.

To catch a hyper conservative christian, one must bore the sods into being docile. Then duct tape if that doesn't work. Duct tape fixes everything.


Conservative in the non-political way. I'm not sure what the conservative party stands for in America... Still...

 

I'm sorry, what exactly is your problem with "flamers" or effeminate/flamboyant men? It's my understanding from reading your post that you want them to pretend to be someone they are not in order to please you. Your concerned that these flamboyant gays are sending the wrong message to kids, but if things were your way then the message that would be sent is that people should not be able to be themselves, is that really a message you want to send to children?

---------- Post added 4th Apr 2016 at 06:32 PM ----------

Why do you believe that gay people need to align their behavior with how a hyper conservative christian would like them to act?

---------- Post added 4th Apr 2016 at 06:40 PM ----------

Also, why does a parade have to be a serious affair aimed toward achieving equality, can't a parade just be a parade? You know, something intended for fun. Should the next St Patrick's Day parade just be a bunch of Irish people walking down the street wearing suits. Cause those parades are known for being crazy, drunk, and reckless yet it hasn't caused any discrimination against the Irish has it?

 

I agree, which is why I've never been to a parade and don't plan to go. I think the way parades are now is a relic of the past, when "out of the closets into the streets" was a necessary message because being gay was pretty much illegal and taboo. So yes, it made sense to protest that by being as flamboyant and visible as possible, to push back against that.

Now, though, the things we are fighting for are much different--things like not being able to get fired or evicted, or the right to adopt. I don't think leather and boas and man-thongs are the best image we can put forward given what it is we are now fighting for. I'm not saying nobody should ever enjoy any of that, but I don't think the most public event that the LGBT community puts on is the right time and place.

I'm a much bigger fan of things like LGBT film festivals, art exhibits, community fairs, musical performances, etc.

 

the only parade I understand is the Black Parade




i'll leave

 

I don't really care that much to go to pride. Lots of people wanted me to go but I had to work and I'm honestly glad I did because it was a good excuse.

 

I will go over this again, for the youngsters here who have NO idea what a Gay Pride Parade is ACTUALLY about.

The Pride Parades commemorate the Stonewall riots. Please, please, please look it up! I really get tired of the BS surrounding the misunderstandings of it. It has nothing to do with sex, with nudity or even getting drunk, but with fighting to not be victimized by the police and society. Pride did not even start until 1969 or so and the first Pride parade stared in New York, where the Stonewall riots took place. They have grown to be a party, expressing the beautiful diversity that is the rainbow of LGBT people. There is nothing wrong with it. We don't have to 'act straight' we don't have to 'be normal' it is for us to be diverse.

For people all offended about boas, or nudity or drinking or whatever they see as a 'big gay sin' look into Marty Gras, where women show their titties to get beads, and people screw in the streets, and they dress up and act crazy. That is a STRAIGHT PERSON event and yes NO ONE expects THAT to stop because it 'reflects poorly' on straight people. It's homophobia straight up folks, that people would be upset and judge all gays by Pride, when they don't judge all straight people by Marde Gras.

I have always brought my kids, and will continue to bring the grandparents as well every year that we go. They all enjoy it and it is instilling pride in where they come from, reminding them that they don't have to be ashamed of who they are, and carrying on the tradition of fighting for our rights to be us.

---------- Post added 4th Apr 2016 at 04:26 PM ----------

Thank you Some guy for getting it. I really get tired of people who think that we have to be 'conservative' to make others think it's ok to be us.

 

I've never been to Pride. The thought of it sounds fun, but doesn't even sound interesting to me if above descriptions are accurate.

 

my thoughts too... mcr fer life(!)

 

Pride parades celebrate the victory of self-acceptance over fear. I think that is beautiful.

 

This sums up my view beautifully.

 

Goddammit. I mean, true, but...Goddammit

 

I've been to a pride before, it was fun.

 

Agree with Lipstick Leuger and Some Dude 10,000%.

To their excellent points, I would add:

1) Straight people inundate the world in sex 24/7. Everything from billboards to TV commercials to half the movies and shows out there involve sex to one degree or another. If they can make everything about sex all year long, we can have a multi-location party, some of whose locations have some sexy elements. Speaking of locations, not all Pride events work the same way. Some of them schedule or otherwise organize things so that there are 'family friendly' times and locations separate from the more risque elements. And some don't have any risque elements at all. Our Pride in Norfolk year before last had a dunking booth with some very handsome young men in speedos getting wet for charity - and that was about as sexy as it got.

2) The people who hate us aren't doing so because a tiny percentage of us choose to wear a leather jockstrap and dance on a float once a year. They hate us because we are homosexuals! I don't care how conservatively you dress up (and btw most of the people at Pride are dressed in regular old street clothes - something you'd know if you actually bothered going before forming an opinion on the matter), you will still be a homosexual and they will still hate you. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

3) Speaking of getting over things - something I've noticed on EC that frankly baffles me: A strong common denominator here across a wide chunk of the membership seems to be a tremendous concern for what other people think (other people = friends, family, random people on street, the conceptual mass of humanity in general) sometimes (often) to the point of it seeming that their entire feeling of self-worth is bound to this and their own happiness is treated as something that is purely secondary or even a source of shame. Why is this? These other people are as human (and as fallible) as anyone else and just as subject to mistakes and failings and the like. While I can understanding tactical reasons for being concerned about them - why all the emotional concern with making everyone else happy even if it results in you being miserable?

Todd

 

I completely agree! I will never go to one! My sexuality doesn't define me.

 

This very much resonates with me, and oddly enough, one also sees exactly the same kinds of 'concern' in the furry, anime and cos-paly communities over the 'adult' or sexual aspects of those fandoms. And it's always put in the context of certain members of whatever group making the others look bad, and then, OMG, whatever will they do, and then comes the default argument: OMG, what about the children! "Their spines will surely curl, and they will grow up either with grave mental defects, or as sex-starved zombies!" Or something, I'm not sure exactly what.

I've been to a few parades, and did not find them all that wild, no more than things you see on TV.

~

Once I get my Skunk Fursuit made, then I plan to be in a parade, so I can act all goofy, and have fun, and maybe even make people smile and laugh. And if people get the idea that gays like to dress up and have fun, good. Then I'll have accomplished something.

 

When I was a young boy...

 

In addition to being the least original thought ever about pride parades, it's also not based in reality. I've been to three pride parades, and none of them involved nudity or inappropriate dress.

The politics of respectability result in internal minorities being marginalized by normatively presenting people who fear that visibility of all kinds of people will detract from what they take to be "the movement." What's really going on is that these people are out to silence other people and claim the benefits of "the movement" for themselves.

 

100% true Pret. I think in all of the Pride parades I have been to,(11 years of) one time I saw a gal flash her breasts, but no one cared. She was quite obviously drunk and who has not seen this in a bar full of straight girls, or a rock concert? Honestly, I showed more breasts with the public nursing of my three now young adults, than I have EVER seen at ANY Pride parade.....lol

 

It sounds kinda fun. But I don't wave my sexuality in anyone's face.