What happened to our celebration of gay culture, of flesh and fun, skin and sexuality? Is this really the direction we want to take? Or is this the direction selected by a handful of people elected to run our parade?
This is a valid question.
Meanwhile the ratio of skin and sexuality seems to be dropping as the number of moving ads increase. What is happening to our Pride parade? Have we forgotten its purpose, lost touch with the celebration of self that once lay at its core?
This is much less so.
Read my lips -- if you wish to spend money, you must acquire money. The techniques of getting money have not much changed for a very long time. One way (and it works very well) is to sell advertising.
Now, I'm not looking for a house with a bigger closet. I'm not even looking to own a house. I'd bet a bazillion Coral Sea Dollars that more than a few people in the crowd ARE. It is reasonable for Royal LePage to suggest themselves to their prospective market. That I am not in that market is not all that relevant. If some power company wishes to urge people to use energy more responsibly... this is good advice. Perhaps you should listen to it. Wireless communication is not something my computer is going to be getting anytime soon... I fail to see the benefit to it at all. There are, however, more than a few 'mos who think that's just a fine service that they really must have and promptly. The tech thing with the 'mo is fairly notorious, you know. It's hardly foolish for some company to hawk wireless service at a homo event. Some burger joint wants me to eat their food? Probably not going to happen... but you know -- I'm still working on the idea that 'mos ought to be able to eat in restaurants of all stripes without being thrown out. That some burger joint actually wants my money badly enough to ask for my patronage directly (and in what is probably the second 'moest of possible circumstances) -- this is a good thing.
I'd be pleased enough if these hideous money grubbers came grubbing after my money for free. We certainly complain loudly enough when they refuse our custom. But -- and it's a huge but -- they're paying for the privilege of doing so. Take the money. Don't want a house with a bigger closet? Fine... don't buy one. Don't want to use energy responsibly? Whatever... don't (though you should reconsider). Don't want AZZ wireless (or some approximation thereof)? Duh... don't buy it. Just knock off all this whining about services duly rendered for consideration received.
I'm otherwise on the same side here. As celebrations of "flesh and fun, skin and sexuality" many of our Pride events could use work. Hell -- they need an entire make-over, some of them. The problem is, way too many of us are under the delusion that Pride events must be "mass marches for equality." Or they've gotten the oh-so-clever idea (not) of 'hijacking' a good time for some puritanical demonstration. Go throw your own damn parties.
Then there's this issue of "a handful of people elected to run our parade." Ooooh you got me there... or I have you. Somebody has got someone though. Yes... as the organizers of the events, this "handful of people" have considerable input into their character, their 'direction' if you will. Guess what? They aren't elected.
Nope.
I don't know of any place so weird as to do something as peculiar as to hold an election for Pride Committee.
The more typical run of such things goes like, "fine, you ungrateful bitches. I quit."
Happens time and time again. Sometimes it happens behind the scenes; sometimes it happens in the full glare of the public eye.
Want to organize a Pride event? Pop on over to the relevant web site, look up the pertinent e-mail address, and sign up. They'll probably be glad to see you (presuming you know what you're doing). No election will be held. The game is played by those who show up. If, as happens from time to time, this "handful of people elected to run our parade" should ALL quit (I'm thinking Sydney, for some reason) or throw in the towel on the parade (Montreal) or go bankrupt (Seattle springs to mind, though really... this could be a lot of towns) ... somehow the parade goes on anyway. Someone steps up and does the thing.
They have a cultural life of their own, you know. It's disgustingly democratic -- public spectacles springing directly from the public like this.
Don't like your local Pride event? Can't stand the damn thing? Throw your own. Maybe it'll fly. All you have to do is be right. You ARE right, aren't you? There's no reason at all why there can't be competition in such things. It wouldn't last very long... the public just won't play that. Like I said... Pride events have a cultural life of their own.
Yes... there is a lamentable 'skin and sexuality deficit' in many Pride events. It happens to coincide with the so-called "moving ads." For what it's worth, this deficit also coincides with an ever-escalating tirade against 'skin and sexuality' from our own people. Someone's put this idea into their heads that Pride events are marketing vehicles, that the things have a 'message,' that there is some 'image' to sell to the greater (straight) public. Some of these 'someones' are sitting (quite unelected) on Pride Committees. Of course this idea has infected Pride events. Of course it has contributed to a lack of entirely appropriate celebration of "flesh and fun." And not one day after the event is over, some 'mo wonk will start in anew about how there's all these photographs of *gasp* drag queens in the media.
You want a celebration of skin and sexuality and flesh and fun? What a fine idea. Let's throw one. Take the money and dance with the one who brought you. Then use the money to hire some fucking go-go boys.
They don't dance for free, you know. They just don't. And why should they?
