Oddly enough, women *did* march, years ago in the Woman's Suffrage movement. The "blacks" marched for years, remember MLK JR? I'm sure there were "parades" to celebrate their victories, along with the marches to demand civil rights.
Pride parades are about a group so diverse coming together once a year to celebrate their differences, the things they have in common and the fact that they *can* have a parade without any backlash (publicly, at least).
Gay people do protest for civil rights, but most of those protests are separate from pride parades.
Ok there is a difference between Marches and Parades. A March is to help your cause, just liek the women and MLK did, I totally agree with that, and even the gay rights marches...
While the first gay Pride Parade was to protest against discrimination and violence against gays I believe the meaning has been lost. Now it's mostly a reason to party and get drunk.
I believe the Pride Parade is to show young gays they are not alone. It shows no matter how different or weird they may feel there are people in the world that are just like them or even more weird then they are.
Maybe I'm wrong but I think it's nice to have a day for gay people to come together. It shows the str8 people we are still here and we are in larger numbers then people think.
Any way....your thoughts on the issue would be a silly reason to hate you. Beside you're way to pretty to hate. **hugs**
I would agree that mostly pride parade act as solidarity moments where 300,000 gays and straight show up and count themselves as present, even if just for a day. It may not mean as much to me anymore, but it does for a lot of folks who may never have seen that many people (or any person) stand and be "out
( ... )
In my city at least, it serves as a function to show ALL queer people what resources exist around here for them. Welcoming churches, social groups, and yes, bars; pretty much any resource that's available to GLBT folks all together in one place so you can walk around and see. Which is especially useful for young people and people new to the area. And how do you get people to actually show up to your little expo? Turn it into a giant party. I'm ok with that.
For me, it took a while to realize what it was about. I finally realized, at least for myself, that I had to hide who I was for the majority of my life. It's still not acceptable in the suburb I'm taking a class in (fuck you wheaton). So for a day, i get to be as gay as possible, lol.
There was a time when the cops could just arrest you for BEING gay. That was never the case for women or blacks (or any other ethnic group in the US). So the fact that gay people can meet on a public street without being arrested for it is a great achievement.
Maybe some day when one's sexual orientation is as important to other people as one's hair color, when gay is considered just as important at straight, THEN the whole idea behind gay pride parades will become passe. "We've come a long way, baby" but there's still a long way to go before we're there.
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Pride parades are about a group so diverse coming together once a year to celebrate their differences, the things they have in common and the fact that they *can* have a parade without any backlash (publicly, at least).
Gay people do protest for civil rights, but most of those protests are separate from pride parades.
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There is a difference before and after
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I believe the Pride Parade is to show young gays they are not alone. It shows no matter how different or weird they may feel there are people in the world that are just like them or even more weird then they are.
Maybe I'm wrong but I think it's nice to have a day for gay people to come together. It shows the str8 people we are still here and we are in larger numbers then people think.
Any way....your thoughts on the issue would be a silly reason to hate you. Beside you're way to pretty to hate. **hugs**
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Maybe some day when one's sexual orientation is as important to other people as one's hair color, when gay is considered just as important at straight, THEN the whole idea behind gay pride parades will become passe. "We've come a long way, baby" but there's still a long way to go before we're there.
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