Interesting. As a gay man, I have always noted the schizophrenia of Pride parades with some concern. Is it a civil rights demonstration or a celebration of self-expression? It's the self-expression that always seems to make it onto the evening news, which does us no favors. I suppose, being a more uptight person than many gay friends I have, I would rather we were a little less shocking while the cameras are rolling, but that's just me...
Because, simply, folks that are predisposed to look upon the GLBT community as "other" already have serious negative pre-conceived notions about what we do when no one is looking. Parading about in drag, leather and thongs may be lots of fun for some, but it reinforces negative stereotypes and is not representative of our community in total.
Mardi Gras, OTOH, only reinforces the notion that "Geez, people get crazy when they're drunk, don't they?"
you are correct, of coarse, but i've always admired people that don't need to get drunk to have a good time and i've always had a good time at events where there was a majority representation of lgbt(did i fuck that up?) persons.
(not that theres anything wrong with being drunk)
People like an excuse to just let loose for a day. Some would say that the Irish shouldn't have been as open as they are on St. Patrick's Day at the turn of the century (damn gingers!), but eventually the public at large got over it.
It's a normal part of the process. The parades, as goofy and perhaps embarassing as they are, wear down on bigotry. After awhile, they stop being shocking, and people who grew up with such things begin to wonder why their parents freaked out about them.
As a total geek, I can relate. When I was growing up in the '80s, Geraldo Rivera and Phil Donohue were kind enough to suggest that Dungeons & Dragons turned kids into cult killers. There were kids on my block that weren't allowed to play role-playing games because they were demonic in nature. Going to conventions was like a total catharsis in not having to hide my preferences.
Now, in a startling turn of culture, gamer references show up on shows like The Colbert Report or even some mainstream shows like The X-Files with fair frequency.
It's unfortunate that gays haven't had so easy a transition.
The pebbles have voted and the avalanche has begun.
President-Elect "That One"
