Why Do We Still Need Gay Pride?

[Pictured above: Gay Pride Parade in Sao Paulo has apparently become the largest such event of its kind, drawing an estimated 2.5 million spectators and participants.]

Tons o' photos of beefy Brazilian booty at

G Online

There’s a great post by Mustang Bobby about Gay Pride Day where he says:

"I'm not a huge flag waver.

"I don't have a rainbow flag on my car, and I don't wear symbols of my gayness on my lapel or my sleeve. I don't have a problem with people who do, but it's just not me.

"If people are going to take me for what I am, then they can do it without a semiotic clue or a preconceived idea.

"It's probably my Quaker philosophy coming through, but I believe in leading in silence and letting my life be the symbol of what I am.

"Also, I'm not sure if "pride" is the right word to describe how I feel about being gay.

"It's a part of who I am -- and always have been -- and yet it doesn't define me any more than the rest of what makes me who I am, so I find it hard to label it.

"The word "pride" also carries with it a certain amount of exclusion, as if being gay was something that places me on a different plane than other people.

"I suppose that's true in some respects, but it also feeds the mindset that being gay is somehow different than any of the other things that make each of us unique, and therefore something to be feared.

"I'm not proud to be gay, but I'm not ashamed of it, either.

"I just am."

Read the whole article for yourself

here.

As you can see, Mustang Bobby brings up the question of Gay Pride Day and his commentators reflect upon what it means to them.

Gay pride parade 2008 DC





Perhaps being gay didn't define who I am, but being persecuted for being gay certainly had a formative influence on my personality.

And watching many of my friends, several partners / family die of AIDS, i.e., the 'gay cancer' as they called it back then, again defined my take on life and society.





Pride events are 'performative' rituals, and every community needs rituals to recreate their group identity from year to year.

Most ways in which gays could perform their gayness were illegal somewhere at sometime, and so parades and Pride parties, although still illegal some places (Russia, Poland until recently, Jamaica, etc.) provide a moment for 'performing gayness'. 



The problem is that stereotypes make better TV and so the leather guys in bare buttock chaps and the drag queens are all the six o'clock news cameraman can see.



This transmits a mediated and biased perspective of what being 'gay' constitutes, and so some less flamboyant gays, not seeing themselves broadcasted, stay home, feeling left out and further marginalized by the way TV interprets and skews who we are.





But having a national day is perceived as a desirable institution for a 'nation' to have (think MLK Day for the AA 'nation') and gays understand that a national day or month for the Queer 'nation' is probably another step toward societal equity, similar to the equalizing effect of marrying or serving in the military.



Think of what it might mean for an Irish person to not have St. Patrick's Day. Or for a Christian or for that matter, any member of most Western societies not to have Christmas Day (and Boxing Day if you're British, and Befana if you're Italian, and la Noche Buena or Three Kings if you're Latino, etc.).

The trans-national identity of being gay or queer does have a history, we do have rituals, and we do have icons.



The visual 'short-hand' of the Drag Queen's beads have become emblematic of Mardi Gras in New Orleans.



In the same way, the Shamrock and Leprechaun are iconic indicators of Irish-ness, whether this reflects the current modern state of life in most of economically and culturally booming Ireland or not.

What iconic symbols will current and future greeting cards for Gay Pride Day use to create a visual 'short-hand' that communicates internationally-understood markers of Queer Identity?



There's going to be a debate, but some of it is out of our hands, since much of a persecuted group's identity (at least externally) is defined by their enemies.

That's why Wales is called Wales, a Saxon word meaning 'foreigner' instead of the Welsh word for Wales 'Cymru' which means 'land of comrades'.

Names, holidays and iconic symbols: they isolate and marginalize those within the group who don't fit or relate to the 'visual short-hand' needed to create sound bites and advertising logos.

In my view, gays have decided to 'manipulate the aggressor by co-opting the name of derision and the event of violence and shame (the police, a symbol of social rectitude were battling the gays and drag queens at Stonewall).

GAY PRIDE PARADE 2008





Consequently we turn around the abuse and make a defining umbrella for our inner and shared group diversity when we celebrate Gay Pride.

This is in response to centuries of being told to own and internalize Gay Shame.

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For additional info please contact Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

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