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Originally Posted by Baboinga
That's the typical statement. But Pride Parade is more than overtly showing everyone that they're different. It's showing that the population exists, and they are real people and a real presence in whatever city. There are a million reasons for it, and they just celebrate the ways that they are different in a public scenario instead of stuck in a basement club in short shorts shaking their hienies around with joe and jane average having no idea what they're doing.
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"It's showing that the population exists, and they are real people and a real presence in whatever city."
I think that Gay Pride Parades do nothing but show that they are not "real people." Examples:
Just three pictures out of hundreds of pictures when you
google "Gay Pride Parade." I could give a shit when people want to make it known that they exist in a city or area ... Whether it's lobbying, running campaigns, making advertisements. But from the perspective of the typical American who really could give a shit about gays, having a parade where people dance around in ridiculous, nearly-illegal outfits, publicizing what should be something private... I think it makes them look like an UNreal group of mental patients.
ANd those parades are rarely celebrating the ways that they are different. Last year it seemed like everybody wanted to make the case that the only difference between homosexuals and heterosexuals is that homosexuals simply like people of their own sex... and that the love is real and genuine, and that nothing else is different. However, when Gay Pride Parades advertise homosexuality as people clowns pushing dogs, naked men on floats, and frivolous guys wearing next to nothing and dancing provocatively in public with one another ... it sends a very different message. The notion of having a parade, itself, to separate homosexuals and heterosexuals undermines any efforts for others to see anybody else as simply "people." Everybody calls for society to be blind, but then do as much in their power to make themselves stand out apart from everything else.
If Gay Pride Parades were all about solidarity and togetherness in the community, then that'd be great, I'd have absolutely no issue with it (and I really don't have any issue with it now)... but... when what is celebrated most is a ridiculous flandering of skin and pompous difference ... it's audacious. I've yet to have a parade with my girlfriend where we publicize and simulate our sexuality ... and if I did, we'd probably be arrested. Doing the same at a Gay Pride Parade is celebrated, and if anybody were arrested, it would be a hate crime.
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Why should Joe or Jane Average have to know what people are doing? I don't think that Joe and Jane Average setup nationally televised and advertised events proclaiming their sexual misadventures ... I don't see why who somebody likes to have sex with should be a public affair ... worthy of celebration.