Gay Pride Date Tuesday, April 23, 2024 - 09:55 PM PST Topic Politics As gay pride week approaches, I look back with a sense of nostalgia on all the parades I have been in. I think back on the math that the organizers told us about, that each one of us represented 10 people that couldn’t be there. I wonder about those 10 people and what they are doing now. I wonder what kept them from being able to march with me, side by side for the rights of people to pursue happiness, or at least get laid by the person of their choice. I also think back on the history of Gay Pride Week: the Stonewall riots, the White Night riot, the phrase “gay village”, AIDS, the enactment of the “hate crimes” bill, the equal rights amendment, “gay” marriage, “Ellen”, rainbow flags, Dykes on Bikes, “gay until graduation, and “I kiss girls” t-shirts. I also remember the friends I have lost to AIDS, hate crimes, police brutality, and murder. I remember the organizers talking to us kids about why we needed people to show up and march. I remember the speeches and the parties. I also remember the over the top outfits, the men kissing in the street, and all the kids that got lollypops instead of condoms from the condom fairies. The Stonewall riots were the starting point of the politically active gay rights movement. It splintered immediately into hundreds of factions, partially because there was so much to do, and partially because they could. The White Night riot happened when the man that shot Harvey Milk (openly gay politician) got off with manslaughter instead of getting the chair. Gay villages (one in S.F. and one in N.Y.) became Mecca’s for the young, horney and queer, and strangely, the rents went up as fast as the clothes came off. I was there when AIDS (called KSOI, GRID, and other series’ of letters meaning about the same thing, “its kills gay men”) hit. I lost a close friend of the family, a man that had babysat me when I was 8. That death was followed by many more, some close friends some total strangers, but I remember the fear, the hysteria, and the sense that something had to be done. I remember the black armbands. The equal rights amendment, the one that means that husband beating is just as serious as wife beating and that a girl wasn’t asking to be raped just because she wore a dress still hasn’t been ratified. The hate crimes bill is still pending and being fought because it would mean that being mean WHILE beating the hell out of someone was actually worse than just beating someone. Gay marriage laws are moving forward and people are getting to have the right to share their money with their lover. And this is a great reason to celebrate. “Ellen”, a sit-com about an openly gay woman, ran for a year, another good reason to celebrate. Dykes on Bikes, who have changed their name to include all women that want to ride in the SF Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Parade, have great breasts. Yet one more reason to party. And do I really need to explain why “gay until graduation” and “I kiss girls” t-shirts are reasons to celebrate? I sure hope not. So what is Gay Pride all about? It’s about sex and death and disco. It’s about community building and networking. It’s about votes. It’s about marketing and freebies. It’s about remembering the people that have died in protest to make it ok to wear an “I kiss girls” t-shirt to the parade. It’s about fashion and fanatics. It’s about real people being people as hard and as loud as they can. This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=700