Gay Pride parades used to mean protests. Now they're an excuse for straight kids to party

Gay Pride parades used to mean protests. Now they're an excuse for straight kids to party
www.usatoday.com...
Who would have known? This is why we can't have nice things!!!

SAN FRANCISCO — Paul Ellis has seen a lot of gay pride parades. He marched in Pittsburgh's first one in 1973 with just 40 other people, flanked on either side by angry residents holding glass bottles and rocks with only two unhappy police officers for protection. Ellis, manager at Cliff's Variety Store in the historic Castro district, is part of the generation of LGBTQ activists who fought for basic rights, to get jobs and to avoid arrest. So when he most recently attended the San Francisco Pride Parade with his partner, he was shocked by what he saw. "I stopped and said (to my partner), 'Do you see any gay people around us?' And it was like, 'Oh my God, no,'" he said.

Oh the humanity......who knew that by only looking one could tell a straight person from a gay person???
How dare straight people support a non straight parade.

They had run into a cultural shift breathtaking in its speed and still something of a disconnect to many in the gay community. In many large cities, gay pride marches have become the new St. Patrick’s Day, only with rainbow tutus instead of shamrocks.

Cultural shift???

The parades in honor of Ireland’s patron saint began as religious celebrations and in the United States date back to the 1700s. They eventually morphed into statements of Irish pride and solidarity, but have now become an excuse for many to wear green and drink Guinness stout. When it comes to LGBTQ pride marches, that same shift has happened in less than 50 years. Today, the streets along the parade route throng with groups of people in their teens and 20s, dancing and partying while sporting rainbow-colored wigs, sunglasses and feather boas, along with the ever-present tutus.

Oh my....how impolite going to someone else's party uninvited, and in the proper parade attire no less.....the unmitigated gall.

"It’s not in the interest of most (LGBTQ) people of color to be in this kind of celebratory type of gay pride that has absolutely no political vision," she said.

Whoa....not in their interest to go to a celebratory type of parade with no political vision. Can't we just have fun to have fun any more???

Andrew Jolivette, a San Francisco native and American Indian studies professor at San Francisco State University, actually has a name for what he views as the commercialization of gay culture — he calls it "Gay Inc." He says he has stopped going to pride parades, upset by what he sees as the false perception that the LGTBQ community has made enough progress to stop resisting. Going to gay pride, he said, has become just a "cool thing" to attend rather than a place to uplift marginalized voices and to acknowledge the community's ongoing struggle to achieve progress.

I guess no fun unless there is struggle........you have to earn your drunken parades millennials damn it!

a reply to: shooterbrody
My girlfriend and I went to the pride parade here with another straight couple a couple years ago. It was pretty fun...got way too drunk though. The parade itself was actually pretty good they put a lot of effort into it and everyone was pretty positive. Ran into a few gay friends there who didn't seem at all upset we were there...in fact pretty much the opposite. We hung out had a gay ole time.

a reply to: shooterbrody

Seems like segregation is only wrong when it's someone on the opposite side of the fence that's calling for it.

a reply to: shooterbrody

yeah and its and excuse for all the depraved to come out wearing full fetish gear and gimps suit. all while the local new orgs tell everyone to come on down for a family friendly (the irony i know) good time... never showing the bears in ass-less chaps walking the streets. or bearded men dressed as disney princesses.

remember when the slogan was "stay out of our bedroom!"... well maybe they should think about keeping their fetishes in their bedroom where they belong

a reply to: shooterbrody


I guess I don't understand.


The GLBTQ community has equal rights under the law.


What else do they need to protest? That some people don't like it?

a reply to: DBCowboy

They're no longer a protest, they've turned into a celebration

www.edmontonpride.ca...


No party poopers allowed though. Although here they just want to have fun too...

www.cbc.ca...

Members of the Edmonton Police Service and RCMP joined the parade out of uniform, but their presence still triggered objections.

The group also asked that the Edmonton Pride Festival Society do more to include trans people and people of colour.

⬆️That makes me laugh. Everyone is welcome, what if there isn't any more trans or people of colour??

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: shooterbrody


I guess I don't understand.


The GLBTQ community has equal rights under the law.


What else do they need to protest? That some people don't like it?

Yes it's been what 3 years since gay marriage was allowed and 2 years for adoption. How could they possibly feel discriminated against...

Besides which equal rights under the law is not the same as equal rights.

a reply to: snowspirit

I'm too old to even pretend to understand this any more.

a reply to: ScepticScot


What's the difference?

a reply to: DBCowboy

Any excuse to have a party 🍾

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: ScepticScot


What's the difference?

Is that a serious question?

I never understood what there was to be proud of if you are gay.

I certainly wouldn't celebrate or party.

originally posted by: ScepticScot

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: ScepticScot


What's the difference?

Is that a serious question?

Yep.

I get that some don't like gays and transgendered. But there is no law that says you HAVE to like them.

There's only laws that prevent discrimination of anyone in the LGBTQ community.

originally posted by: DBCowboy

originally posted by: ScepticScot

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: ScepticScot


What's the difference?

Is that a serious question?

Yep.

I get that some don't like gays and transgendered. But there is no law that says you HAVE to like them.

There's only laws that prevent discrimination of anyone in the LGBTQ community.

It's not about liking or disliking. You can dislike who ever you want and not discriminate.

There are few anti discrimination laws covering LGBT in the US.

a reply to: dug88

That's cool!
I was surprised to see this story in the USA today.
Seems an odd place for a story like that.

So it is ending up like Cinco de Mayo celebrations, co-opted by the masses when it really wasn’t celebrated by many outside the focus?

a reply to: burdman30ott6

I guess they ran out of phelps to query?

a reply to: DBCowboy

I thought it was a weird story for the USA today to run.
I thought it was a pride March not a protest March? It would be weird seeing the gop call out the dems marching with them?

a reply to: ScepticScot






I don't know of any legal dicrimination of the LGBTQ community.


*shrugs*

I don't care who you are, who you sleep with, how you dress.

Ain't none of my business.

a reply to: shooterbrody


I'm a grumpy old man.

ANY parade means that parking is going to suck.