Re: UT's 3rd Annaul Pride Weekend Bender!
Article by an assimilationist in the Post on Pride:
Still no gay pride
Kelvin Browne, National Post
Published: Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Every year I'm asked, ''What are you doing for Pride?'' When I say, ''I don't do Pride,'' I get a range of responses, from the indifferent to the outright confrontational.
I don't like crowds. But that's not the reason for my abstinence. I don't exercise enough to look hot in a tank top. But given what Pride crowds look like, this shouldn't stop me from attending either.
Pride has something for everyone: dykes on bikes, people with more tattoos and piercings than you'd think one body could host, gay teens, gay seniors, and every shape, size and gender including trans and other categories more difficult to place.
And then, of course, all the non-gays, which are even a longer list of sub-specialties. Though the exotics get the attention, Pride is a cross-section, a statistically accurate sampling as the pollsters say, of Canada with no more people drunk or on drugs than you find at the CNE. Again, no reason not to go.
Pride is a good excuse for a party, and I like parties. My partner lets me know a few weeks in advance he's going out to at least one of the late night dance extravaganzas. Good for him, he enjoys it, but ... not for me. I don't think Pride is much of a political statement, even if organizers claim it's about solidarity with those oppressed elsewhere, since we haven't got too many issues in Canada left to protest. If protest was the point, or even a show a strength in numbers, I'd join the parade. Being politically active, and even voting, appears to be more difficult for gays and their supporters than attending Pride. Too bad. Power is found in Parliament, not at a street party.
While it's never occurred to me to be proud of being gay (are people proud of being ''straight''?) I certainly accept it, just as I accept that I'm 50. It's a fact. In other words, I don't think it's self-loathing stopping me from joining the Pride festivities.
I confess I never like using the word ''gay''; and herein lies the problem with Gay Pride participation for me. I prefer the term homosexual, as it seems to label one's sexual interests but leave assumptions about lifestyle out of the definition. It's about what you want to do in bed but not your social life or politics.
''Gay'' bothers me because of the package that comes with it; the club it's assumed you belong to even though you never applied for membership. The scariest part of coming out for me was not admitting I liked men, I'd known this since I was six, but an anxiety my lifestyle options were suddenly limited because of my sexuality. While I didn't assume I had to become a florist or vote NDP (and there's nothing wrong with being a florist), I knew there were going to be some places not keen to have me and people I'd meet where overcoming their prejudice was a formidable hurdle to friendship or doing business. For a while, I thought my social life would be limited only to gay people.
Although these worries are long gone, I still don't want to be defined by my sexual interests, at least not as the number one attribute. I don't want to join the ranks the hyphenated and be a gay-Canadian. Pride co-chair David Anderson says of Pride, ''It's a way for us to be proud of who we are as sexual and gender minorities.'' Can't we get past this? I'd rather celebrate my identity as a writer, gardener, dog-owner, nice fellow or my minority status as WASP. And if the reason for Pride is to revel in gay diversity or acceptance, my preference is to demonstrate this by integration into society.
I don't care about people's sexual interests and I'd like them to forget about mine. There are, in Canada, more important things to worry about. But, hey, it's summer, a nice time to party, and Pride does generate lots of tourist dollars.
© National Post 2006
*cringe*
AoD