What 'gay pride' is, and how it is manifested in the Pride March.

Discussion in 'Gay & Lesbian Rights' started by btthegreat, Aug 12, 2019.

  1. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    We do not feel pride in' being gay' or in our sexuality at all. Gay pride is about the personal coming out process and how we handled those challenges.

    We feel personal and collective pride in how we responded to the social pressure, the stigma, the systemic efforts to shame and control us by the majority throughout decades and centuries of repression.


    The Pride March performs three different but interconnected functions .
    1. Celebrates all those individual personal victories in a public forum. Its sort of a public 'Victory Dance' over the cultural and social efforts to shame us into compliance and submission. This is a party with balloons and streamers and a theme. Its supposed be fun, cheeky, a bit wild, but it is not a really a super exclusive or private party. Just like most parties, gay people tend invite some straight guests along as their 'plus ones'. Of course there are always social tensions that complicate who gets invited and who is unwelcome at even the most open 'bring your own beer' house parties. We have our politics and egos too!
    2. Represents a political statement in support of gay rights activism. This is essentially the same role that every other political protest performs whether it is a pro life march or anti war demonstration. It seeks media attention on the 'cause', and demands reform of perceived social and legal injustices. Activism is about confronting the status quo, and provoking a response. Immoderate and Intemperate speech is what all political protests are about. You don't bring your 'indoor voice' or your diplomats to a political demonstration.
    3. It reinforces the collective ties within the LBGTQ subculture ( its 'counter-cultural' identity) and its sense of community. Subcultures can identify behind a religion, and ethnicity, a geographic area, or a set of mutual experiences. Like many other subcultures, The queer counter-culture originated as a negative response to the prevailing culture. It developed its own argot, symbols, style, musical and theatrical art, and memes.

    The functions of gay pride marches, and their role in defining the relationship of the queer community to the broader straight culture will inevitably change and adapt over time and what purpose they need to serve both within the queer community, and in relation to exterior forces in the city they are being held in . How much 'party' we bring to it, how much political posturing we bring to it, and how much subcultural unity we want to stress, is up for grabs!

    Not a lot of this translates well to 'straight pride march' but as far as I am concerned, who am I as a gay man, to tell you straights you can't try to find a purpose buried in there somewhere to reply to with a march of your own.

    The worry comes when the majority with the power and historic propensity to discriminate, bully and marginalize a minority, isn't very careful in its messaging, and packaging of its protest themes, it can become an excuse to advocate for the same bullying behavior that it did before.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2019
  2. Right is the way

    Right is the way Well-Known Member

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    The gay pride parade I when to I just assumed that it was a time to put on a leather g string and dance on a flat bed. The parade might be what you said it is to you, but to me it looked like one big sex party.
     
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  3. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    That represents a few floats. You might have paid attention to the character of the others that reflected the deaths of thousands of our brothers, friends and lovers to the AIDS epidemic in the eighties and ninties. You might pay attention to the character of the others like the queer first responders, who marched as firemen, police, and EMTs, or the queer veterans marching in their army, marine and navy uniforms.

    Maybe you should watch for the queer fathers and mothers marching with their babies and children by their sides, or the same sex married couples marching together hand in hand holding up their hands with those wedding bands, and certificates.

    Maybe you should pay attention to those who marched for the local homeless youth shelter serving kids living on the streets thrown out by their families, or you could note the float on suicide prevention with the families of loved ones touched by that tragedy , or another reflecting the 'it gets better' anti bullying campaign.

    No, you saw, what you expected to see, and remembered what you wanted to remember, and took away what you wanted to take away.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2019
  4. Right is the way

    Right is the way Well-Known Member

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    The parade I saw should not have children present.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2019
  5. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    It depends on the age of the kid and the circumstances. . Kids should never be dragged along without any preparation, regardless of their maturity, or their desire to go. By the time they hit double digits they have seen far more overt sexuality over the internet or exposed to modern media.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2019
  6. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Go ahead and be proud of being gay...I am proud of being not I suppose, but I don't flaunt it or dress funny.

    To me they just act like freaks.
     
  7. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    I refer you to both the OP and to post #3. 'being gay' is not something to be proud of. How you handle the tension between what you are, and what society demands you to be, may be something to be proud of, insofar as it involves choices and a series of acts based on those choices, either for good or for ill. On this particular score, you don't have any real tension to respond to. By the way I don't 'flaunt it' or dress funny or act like a freak nor did I did do so when I marched.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2019
  8. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    Bump and refer us all to the OP on the last day of Pride month.
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2021
  9. Polydectes

    Polydectes Well-Known Member

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    Realistically speaking part doesn't have anything to do with that it's a marketing gimmick. Historically speaking yes but now no.

    At the time when it started the first annual anniversary of the Stonewall riots it was a protest.

    Now it's about how corporate branding can stick rainbows on their logos for a month when it's nice and safe to do so this is not brave it is not inclusive it is pandering.

    I don't like my sexual orientation and my struggles being used to sell TVs.
     
  10. Polydectes

    Polydectes Well-Known Member

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    Delete
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2021
  11. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    Well I can't deny that corporations largely see this as a way to market themselves and their products sp pandering is the word. A lot of Christians have had to accept that not only was their saviors birth a marketing event, so was his death and resurrection. Its all tacky, but its as 'American as apple pie.' You know you are truly equal in this country, when Corporate America learns to see you as a dollar sign.
     
  12. Polydectes

    Polydectes Well-Known Member

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    Good point I suppose.
    Yeah thus I really don't care much for it. The last one I went to I was surprised to see so many Christian and Jewish organizations there marching in the parade.
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2021
  13. Pycckia

    Pycckia Well-Known Member

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    You forgot to mention a rather large dollop of narcissism which is a trademark of homosexuality.
     
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  14. Cougarbear

    Cougarbear Banned

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    I just want to say I have a humble level of pride for being straight and keeping the Commandments of the Lord thy God.
     
  15. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    The point of my post was that I see nothing about sexual orientation that warrants pride. Its how you handle its challenges. Insofar as any of the commandments involve showing restraint of your sexual urges and self constraint of sexual behavior, and you choose to honor those commandments, I suppose there is some connection for you. If its hard to do, and you do it well and you do it consistent with that ol 'golden rule', then you get to take some pride in succeeding however you get your inspiration.
     
    Last edited: Jul 20, 2021
  16. Jolly Penguin

    Jolly Penguin Well-Known Member

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    Gay pride was a reaction to gay shaming. People were told that they should be ashamed of their sexual orientation. They said screw that, I will do the opposite and have a parade celebrating it.

    As time goes on and as society accepts homosexuality, and the taboo switches around, the need for "gay pride" erodes. There soon won't be any point to it anymore, and what's left of it may morph into something more authoritarian than rebellious.
     
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  17. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    I am not sure what your mean by more authoritarian celebrations. Regardless, a lot of the trendy bars in my city's old town area had a pride night with no proper parade. Nobody really cared and I understand that none of them were particularly well attended. That said, a bar that has axe throwing hosted the event for the T's and that spurred a lot of wise cracks around town. I was told, however, that there was only one real T that showed up dressed as drag queen and other than giving a little 5 minutes speech that was the extent of the "pride" festivities there. There are a fair number of open LGBT people in my city and they have their own haunts. I assume a lot of them saw no need to attend these ones just because the owners of the various bars suddenly decided they needed customers or attention.
     
  18. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    This thread is one of a couple of mine from this section, that I am bumping for pride month.
     
  19. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    Doing the annual 'bump' for pride month in 2023
     
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