esrosedotblog

This is Gay Pride Weekend in Palm Springs.

It is a bit of legerdemain that is cynically connected to the tourist season and nothing else.

This was always the traditional beginning of the time when snow birds returned and the tourist businesses recharged. Now it is boosted with an event.

For an easterner this is all bogus. We all know that what has become "pride weekend" began with Stonewall and the riots against the police there. It is followed by the first marches, the first direct actions, the first changes to hetero-hegemony in the laws and such.

And it all happened in June, godammit. To tie it to tourism is a sacrilege.

It used to be said that they did it because it is too hot in June. I call that bullshit.

More and more people live here in the summer and everyone knows that the temps in June are entirely comfortable. And so on. Don't get me started.

Well, I did get started. I will finish with this.

The concept of gay pride is a good beginning point to the whole thing and certainly there is still room for it in the remaining heterodominant world. But the battle is over. The war is still in the mop up phases.

I do not mind that younger gay men and women "do not appreciate" the efforts made on their behalf. Most of us really do not appreciate the efforts of our national revolutionaries who secured independence for our new country.

Disinterest is the motor that drives the future. And so be it.

I like to think of every day as a day that I do not kiss anyone's ass for anything. And if you don't like that fuck you.

Actually, I do not start the day with that thought.

I start with gratitude for my life and my partner and the freedom we enjoy. The freedom that our gay brothers and sisters fought for. And fucking won, goddamit. See? Still a touch of the animosity we all have toward the homophobes. Now mostly in the closet themselves. The secret little jokes and macho asides. It is no different than the racists.

They have to live with themselves. Conscious or otherwise. It does not matter. It is a lonely road for them.

Labels: gay culture, gay life, gay pride