esrosedotblog

PRIDE?

This is Gay Pride weekend in Palm Springs.

It is also the inaugural weekend of the tourist season.

See the connection?

It is also mostly referred to as 'pride weekend'. "Are you going to pride?"

Somehow it lost the gay.

I have gone off on this before. I don't like it. I almost have contempt for the whole enterprise.

Gay Pride Parades started as gay protest marches and then rights marches to commemorate the Stonewall riots which occurred in the summer of 1969—June 28-30. In most cities the annual celebrations of that human rights turning point are held in the weeks around those dates.

Not here.

It is too hot in June (it is not) and no one would come (the weekends are busy through July) and besides the tourist season happens the first weekend in November so why not have it then and get a good throttle on the startup—a parade and all (bingo!).

When we had our first parade and rally in Boston we all marched in the streets.

There were few spectators. There were no costumes. It was a serious business.

There was danger. At times, there was civil disobedience.

In many places it was illegal to march.

It was a gay rights march.

Pure and simple.

Little by little things loosened up. The marches and demonstrations became parades. A few leather guys donned their gear. The drag queens came out to play. The cycle dykes revved their engines.

No harm in that although the press began to cover only that aspect of it.

For years, some of us groaned to see these stereotypes on the front page and in the nightly news completely blanking the human rights message.

I figure that the gay pride parade created about as much homophobia as it cured. But it was good for us and I am glad for that.

One year, I don't remember when, we were happy to see commercial organizations sponsor floats. Mostly the bars. Some gay organizations.

Then employee contingents. Blue Cross. John Hancock Insurance.

Soon, the only way you could get to march was if you belonged to a group.

We stood on the sidewalks.

In the old days, the only ones on the sidewalks were the closet cases.

All of this if fine of course.

It is the way most stuff evolves socially.

What is radical becomes normal and then self promoting.

But we must remember that "pride goeth before a fall".

Out here they are shameless in the commercial aspect.

The parade is filled with eye candy. All princes and princesses. No frogs.

The 'gay life style' is front and center. Even in your face.

There is no mention of Stonewall or our martyrs.

There is still a bow in the direction of HIV work but only long enough for a little fund raising.

Just one big party. And yes! A fair ground where gay businesses promote themselves and there is a disco and maybe even a ferris wheel.

I don't attend.

It is OK but it has nothing to do with my identity as a gay man.

I am certainly proud in a humble way but I don't think it is anything to make a buck out of.

Labels: gay history, gay life, gay rights