Gay Pride Plans!- Page 2

[nmartin]

Posted: 6/21/08 at 11:00am

Would some sadistic dentist please drop a screwdriver down averagejoe's throat?
EugLov, you sure are a busy thing.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 6/21/08 at 1:13pm

Going to Sharron Matthews Big Gay Party tonight in Toronto @ Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

The regular drinking etc was something my friends could tolerate, it was the twinks getting drunk, stoned and REALLY obnoxious they couldn't take. We'll go to the vendors booths next week and that'll be about it.

[sally1112]

Posted: 6/21/08 at 1:46pm

EugLuv, thanks for being so activity in the community. Those functions look fun and rewarding!

[artscallion]

Posted: 6/21/08 at 3:32pm

Our Pride festival is today. But we've opted to celebrate the day by honoring the love and family my partner and I have created together. We'll be barbecuing ribs in the back yard, with beans and coleslaw, then we'll toast homemade marshmallows in the chiminea (that's how you know we're gay.)

Then we'll head downtown for the parade which begins when it gets dark. It's a big fabulous parade of lights and always draws a huge crowd, of all styles and orientations.

As far as the justification for gay Pride day, I think a lot of non-gay people misinterpret the word pride to be in the sense of, "look Ma, I made a batch of cookies all by myself!" or "Look everybody, I suck weenis!" To me, what pride means is not self satisfaction for accomplishment or for just being gay. Pride, to me, is used more in terms of the 'absence or opposite of shame."

When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, it was IMPOSSIBLE to admit to a single other soul on earth that you were gay. You just couldn't do it. You grew up hearing people you respected (parents, teachers, clergy, your favorite aunt, everyone!) telling you that homosexuals were perverts and molesters and killed kids after they'd molested them and were basically monsters and all sorts of things. There was no information available to the contrary.

So when you began to have feelings of attraction for the same sex and began to suspect that you might be one of these homosexuals, it kinda ****s your mind up. You can't talk to anyone about it. So it simmers in you and you start to fear that you will grow up to be a child molester or a monster and your life becomes filled with unwarranted shame, that you did absolutely nothing to deserve.

You're an outsider everywhere with this secret shame you hold...until you come out. And that's what gay Pride is about. Freeing yourself from that shame. Standing up and telling the world, this is who I ****in' am. I am not a monster or a pervert or a molester. It's freedom gained from the power of throwing off a shared oppression together among others who have gone through what you have.

Now, things change as time goes on. There is less (or less obvious) oppression. And younger people, thanks to things like Gay Pride, have a different experience today, to which one of them might like to speak.

But I'm here to say, that I celebrate gay Pride because I can and because I ****in' want to. I'll celebrate any day any way I want without anyone's permission or approval, and even if, or maybe because, someone doesn't "get it". What I feel and do are no longer determined by whether or not others approve or understand me. That's Gay Pride.

Happy Pride, everyone!!!

Updated On: 6/21/08 at 03:32 PM

[sally1112]

Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:18pm

^^Well put. I hope you have a great day with family and friends. That is what everyday should be about.

[cabaretman24]

Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:24pm

If you are in New York Come check out the hit Gay Play Judy and Me you only have 6 more chances to see it before we dance down the yeelow brick road.

You wont want to miss the show that audiences are raving about.

www.judyandme.com

[dalefully]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 12:36am

artscallion, thank you for that. People seem to think that just because we devote this tiny amount of the year to show our pride in the face of hate it makes us supremacists.

Not to mention, I also hear a lot that since I'm younger and in the new generation of gay men, I haven't experienced the same hardships that a lot of the older GLBT set has gone through and I would definitely like to say that coming out has been extremely far from easy for me, and for most of my life, it was very difficult for me to say that I'm proud.

Anyhow, I went to my first Pride Parade last week here in Boston with my boyfriend. I had a totally amazing time =D

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 1:16am

artscallion, may I ask where you are that your parade was this evening?

Our pride festival is for two days. The family festival was today (Sat) and the parade and second festival will be tomorrow. As mantioned earlier, I have a friend in town. We went to a greek restaurant for dinner and hit the gay country bar here afterwards (Charlie's Denver) and then home. Lots of people out and lots of rainbow shirts, and leis! Will do the festival for a short time tomorrow. it will be really hot here. Our parade starts at 9:00am.

[theatre2]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 1:23am

portland,maine's gay pride was june 21 i was going to go but did not know it was going on. i wish i had a boyfriend .

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 3:39am

Ours is in September... parading in Dallas in June..no thanks.

Honestly, I don't go. I'm a sociophobe who hates crowds. (Yet I want to live in NYC, go fig)

[artscallion]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 7:53am

uncageg, I'm in Rhode Island. They started doing the night time parade about five years ago. It used to march through downtown at noon, but was pretty pointless because downtown here is more of a business district during the day than anything else. So we marched our bands and floats through a deserted city of empty office buildings with no one on the sidewalk watching. It was pretty pathetic/bizarre to see this giant overblown parade march through the empty streets.

Now the streets are lined with theatre, restaurant and club goers cheering the parade on. It's changed from a surrealistic exercise to a real celebration!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:38am

Thanks, EugLoven and ArtScallion--you are both what it's all about.

The parade is hard for me because I keep remembering the friends I used to watch it with and march in it with, friends we lost to HIV. The Moment of Silence is all about Reed and Peter and John and...

But the dance on the pier and the fireworks is always a celebration--and I love that the pier dance brings together gays of different ethnic groups and ages--it's a true NYC gay melting-pot experience.

Today we're doing Folsom Street East and Broadway Bares, and next week we're doing the pier dance and XXL.

Happy pride. Be who you are.

[EugLoven]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 11:17am

Thanks Pal Joey...

I had plans to go to the Folsom Street East and Broadway Bares today... but frankly, I'm just too gawdamn tired!

Have fun! I hope you do watch the parade (on TV or something), for the ones we've lost.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 1:09pm

I'm probably going to the celebration and not the parade. San Francisco is crazy and gets even crazier when it's Pride weekend. The first day is calmer and you can take more time at the booths and such. And there are fewer surprise dongs passing you by.