Solutions

Headed out to the Pride parade this morning, as we have done for years. Many, many years we've made sure to attend the Festival, but since they made it a paid event, we decided that being supportive was not the same as paying to hear music we didn't like.

So, just the Parade for the last six years. A short walk from our house, a few blocks until we reached one of several staging areas, for the typically immobile to very slow moving parade. Lots of colorful foot traffic from beyond where we live. We heard the club music blaring before we got there.

Pleasant morning, so we walked further to the main stream, which was actually moving. D regretting not wearing a more covering hat, so we continued until we hit some shade among the throng just past the announcer booth. Very different feel this year. Usually, we note that we've seen more organized riots. Not this time. A lot more corporate floats, when it was usually only a token part of this event. Usually, it was all GLBT support services and social groups with a smattering of politicians and gay oriented businesses, performance groups, radio stations. This year, AAA, Citi-Bank, ADT security, as well as a solid representation of local companies of all sorts. More money seems to mean a more organized event. A lot more politicians, as well. Wasn't that long ago it was an issue too hot to touch. Even the local catholic high school had a group of dancers, and a van extolling love as a virtue.

The odor of desperation was gone. Just, not there. What used to be a friendly, but frankly sexualized show, (which is still part of it) now felt much more like a block party/family parade. The undertone of frantic over-sharing, become a faintly sly look. Perhaps it mostly started as a way for young gay men to resist police brutality, and overt societal aggression, that took on a pushy dicks in your face flavor, but it's turned into something far more comprehensive. There have always been kids and dogs, but this year it seems more at ease, cross generational, confident, dare I say cozy. Such a change, not just in my lifetime, or the past five years, but just this last year. When for a brief time this backward state allowed marriage for any two adults.

Very few drag queens, which I have always found personally offensive, a male to female version of black-face*. Mostly, it was what I can see as positive, extravagant male dressing, flashy but without the female/whore/boobs mockery. A moment of insight, that Ru Paul style was to make gay men acceptable to hostile straight men - "well, at least they hate women†." Seeing very few drag queens with fake boobs has to be a step toward finding a more genuine expression, seems to me.

There was a guy with the sign, but instead of "god hates fags" it was "Jesus is god" with a little "No Homo" sticker in the corner. He could not be heard above the din. One woman argued with him, but mostly he was ignored by the cheerful crowd. When even the zealots are drowned by the joy, they have lost for good. They will still be there, but they won't matter. I almost felt a little sorry for him. The solution to pollution is dilution.

Even though the gay marriage issue is still up for grabs for the moment, it's pretty clear it's a matter of when, not if. The old hatreds just don't work anymore. Harvey Milk would be glad, I suspect. He was right, don't hide, come out.

I didn't take the camera, out of an obsolete sense of respect. Next year, lots of photos. One day, perhaps very soon, the Pride Parades will have the same sense of urgency as St. Patrick Day, and Cinco de Mayo, and Macy's Day parades. When we bemoan the corporate take-over of the genuine cultural event. And the LDS Church threatens to sue if they can't have a float in the parade as well.


Really is a beautiful day. Hedge trimmed and all.





*Which does not include transexuals, who are genuinely trying to look like how they feel.

†Like the reverse, hostile men who hate lesbians, because they hate men.