You want gays to fight discrimination by... staying in the closet? By being "house gays" and avoiding the spotlight?
Why can't they give to all the defense funds AND go to the parades? In a year where the old smear tactics are proving to be failures, you think that the best path is to huddle in the corner and hope that the right wing doesn't notice gays? Got news for you: the right wingers hated gays before gays stood up for themselves, too.
I strongly urge LGBT folks to ignore anyone that tells you that you shouldn't celebrate who you are. If there were parades for straight nerdy white guys who aren't into Star Trek, I'd probably march in those.
tekkies shouldn't be able to marry and spawn!
(kidding........maybe)
Trekkies shouldn't spawn.
Babylon 5 is where it's at.
Check out my Vorlon swimsuit calendar.
Apparently you read what you wanted to read. I would rather see millions of gay men and lesbians march on D.C. -- as I wrote -- then do isolated gay pride parades all over the country. The California Supreme Court decision is a celebration -- as I wrote. Dykes on bikes is not.
Why disrespect a year's worth of Pride planning? These local events are important for local communities. Heck, I go to the Minneapolis Pride festival just for the camraderie and overpriced cheese curds, despite not being gay.
A Million Man-on-Man March on Washington is a good idea, but there's no reason that it has to be instead of local events.
I don't think the parades are relevant anymore. They used to be but no longer. As I wrote, I would rather see all the significant resources in launching these parades in Minneapolis and NYC and San Francisco and all over the country poured into organizations -- state and local -- that are carrying the water right now and have few resources to do it.
We have Fourth of July parades, St. Patrick's Day parades, war protest parades, and Cinco De Mayo parades.
What's not relevant?
I wouldn't put a march against the war in with Cinco De Mayo. Gay Pride Parades are not civil rights marches unless you think a gay man in a leather mask and cod piece licking the boot of a motorcycle is expressing his civil right to do so. Gay Pride Marches, IMO, celebrate the stereotypical "lifestyle" that the right froths about. I think the parades are totally out of touch.
They're all parades. Parades are there to be a celebration of something, or a way to get a message out.
Gay pride is the same as Irish pride on St. Patty's or veterans' pride on Memorial Day.
You might see them as "out of touch," but there are a lot of normal, rank and file people out there that spend the entire year planning their parade costumes or performance. I don't see any reason to take that from them just because you find it tacky or useless.
Pardon my impertinance, but I find your attitude to be "out of touch." I've seen plenty of these parades, and while it's not my cup of tea, exactly, everyone seems to have a good time and don't hurt anyone.
Freedom and inclusion, I think that, in the end, these parades are important to the culture. Without them, your Million Gay March idea would never fly in the first place.
