In the End it's About the Drag Queens

At least it's always the drag queens (or leather daddies) that get featured in pics or videos of Pride.

Here's today's photo gallery about Pride...and it's all about, yup, Drag Queens.

Is it 2008 or 1988?

Listen: I don't have a problem with either drag queens OR leather daddies. But our community is So Much More than that. Why are drag queens garnering additional attention...what about the ordinary gay heroes who are changing culture by bravely living their lives openly, as Sean Bugg writes about? Or the under 30 somethings the Blade focuses on?

Drag is not new. It's not at the forefront of what is exciting and new in our culture or community. Drag as a topic is tired and it's definitely not news.

One could fault the Post for resorting to cliche in covering Pride this way. But the Pride organizers did select a drag queen to emcee the main stage.

Mountains, here I come.

Log Cabin Shows its Pride

This was one of two pictures in an email sent out by DC Log Cabin inviting people to drop by to say hello or march with them in the Pride Parade.

I'm waiting to see what the Gertrude Stein Club sends out to see who's got the better looking bare chested party bois Pride Enthusiasts. Who knows, maybe I'll cancel my mountain plans.

The other picture in the email, btw, was Carol Schwartz. That will make MattyDale happy.

More on Pride

Mattydale gives a full-throated* defense of the fun of hanging with friends at Pride. As if hanging with friends needs defending, my friend.

I find it necessary to point out I'm not against the fun, partying and hanging with friends that happens at Pride. And in many ways, that's a part of pride rooted in history, as it was the police raid of the Stonewall Inn where gays were gathered to do exactly that that started it all.

But does that justify all the resources, money and importance we place on Pride?

Paul Varnell writing in Independent Gay Forum has some common-sense suggestions for making Pride serve the community in practical ways. They are:

The service organizations that depend on volunteers should strongly encourage their volunteers to march in the parade. For instance, the local community center claims "hundreds" of volunteers. If so, show us. And show the general public our level of community spirit. That might encourage others to volunteer as well.

A generation ago, it was difficult to get any politicians except the most liberal from the safest districts to participate in the parade. Not any longer. The number has now grown quite large as every office holder and political aspirant wants the publicity of being in the parade. So now, in order to qualify for admission to the parade, politicians should have to sign a statement saying they support domestic partner benefits in their office and civil unions or gay marriage. If they don't, what are they doing in OUR parade?

The large corporations that enter floats should have to disclose whether they have a non-discrimination clause, whether they offer domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian employees, whether they have and support a gay employees organization. And they should be encouraged to indicate any corporate support they have given to gay organizations. That information could be noted in the program booklet for the parade.

So, have fun, everyone attending Pride this weekend. I'll raise my glass to you from the mountains...and to the queers who kicked open the closet doors for all of us 39 years ago at Stonewall.

*"full-throated" It's the other cliche emerging out of the 2008 election cycle.

What's Lacking in Pride is a Movement

I shouldn't be so hard on Capital Pride.


Sidebar: Although they somewhat set themselves up for the ridicule. My main reason for being disdainful is that Pride is a lack of purpose pretending to have a purpose. From the Cap Pride's Web Site:

June 6th will kick-off the 33rd annual Capital Pride celebration! This years theme of "History. Vision. Legacy." will allow attendees from near and far to be part of a celebration of what it means to be Proud in our Nation's capital.

The weeklong celebration of educational, civic and social events, will culminate with the landmark parade on Saturday, June 14th and the street festival Sunday, June 15th. (emphasis added).

But if you review the schedule of weeklong events, you find one forum, one interfaith service, and then happy hour, a bachelor auction, a bachelorette auction, a Miss Capitol Pride Pageant, a men's party, a woman's party, a parade and a street festival. Dancing shirtless, bidding on on beefcake and competing drag queens -- this is "what it means to be proud in our nation's capital?" Drop the pretense. It's a party with no purpose other than partying. It's a Mardi Gras.

End Sidebar.

Problem is, there is a vacuum in our community, one that Pride could help begin to fill by being a rallying point. What's missing in Pride is a national gay civil rights movement.

In California a volcano just erupted. Part of the fallout of that event is going to be a backlash at the ballot box this November. Winning there has ramifications for the entire community. It's the beginning of the collapse of legal and political discrimination against gays. If we win.

You couldn't tell that D-Day will be happening this November based on Capital Pride (and the gays in California acted like they've already one, according to this observer).

But, as I said, I'm expecting too much of Pride organizers. Their task is to throw a party, not galvanize a community into a national movement. Problem is, no one is doing this. One might think HRC would be such a vehicle, but HRC is fundamentally a fundraising organization not a civil rights grassroots organization. And it's too in bed with the Democratic Party to take the risks needed for a civil rights movement. Partisans don't like to rock the boat in favor of their incumbents and civil rights movements make waves.

Pride has its pleasures (as this fellow noted). It's just too bad that nearly 40 years after Stonewall our community hasn't been able to form a cohesive national civil rights movement.

Happy Pride.

Reason Number Nine Why I'm Not Going to Capital Pride

I actually tried to visit the Capital Pride Web site because there was actually something POSITIVE I wanted to say about Pride this year and I needed to get the info...but their Web site was down.

Anyway, I'll give another reason for not going to Pride instead:

Last Year.

Last year sucked. From the parade marshals who screamed and pushed us the entire length of the Pride Parade to the announcers at the reviewing stand whose sole purpose was to denigrate the participants OF the parade, I simply had a lousy time.