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Happy Pride Month
Jun. 2nd, 2006 09:25 amNew Jersey Pride is in Asbury park this Sunday. I'll be there withe the new Jersey gay Men's Chorus. Last year was the first year I remember it NOT raining on NJ Pride. It'll rain this year so things are pretty much back to normal. ;-)
I had hoped that the NJ Supreme Court would have issued it's ruling on gay marriage before Pride, but I'll take a ruling in our favor anytime. It's weird times we live in - in some ways so much progress has been/is being made but in others it feels like we are moving backward.
Even in the chorus there is this scuffle in the back ground between wanting to be "just like straight people" and just wanting space for everyone to be who they are. They sing a song about "a man with a whip and a chain" that isn't graphic and is just campy. A number of members don't want the group to sing it because they're "not like that". The same group is OK with a comedy act involving members in drag. Why? Because bad drag doesn't offend straight people - it makes us less threatening. "Look at that silly fag in the dress!". I have no issue with drag or drag for humor's sake. I do take offense to making a Pride concert a gay minstrel show pandering to straight members in the audience.
I say it every year and I'll say it again, what we should be fighting for and allowing ourselves is the ability for everyone to be and express their true identity. Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Bisexual, Transsexual - we should be making this a safer world for all of us. Not just gays and lesbians whose lives mirror straight society's norms.
Anything between consenting adults, short of murder and cannibalism, should be allowed. Any expression of identity should be allowed - are you a lesbian who is married to a man? That's cool. A shaved head tranny living as a woman with a dick? That's cool. Polygamists in the suburbs? Open relationships? Full time submissive and Master/Mistress? Monogamists porn stars? It's all the same.
We do not have a right to censor each other "for the better of the group" because all that really is is selling our brothers and sisters out for a little acceptance. Make no mistake, that acceptance won;t last - and then who will stand up for you?
I had hoped that the NJ Supreme Court would have issued it's ruling on gay marriage before Pride, but I'll take a ruling in our favor anytime. It's weird times we live in - in some ways so much progress has been/is being made but in others it feels like we are moving backward.
Even in the chorus there is this scuffle in the back ground between wanting to be "just like straight people" and just wanting space for everyone to be who they are. They sing a song about "a man with a whip and a chain" that isn't graphic and is just campy. A number of members don't want the group to sing it because they're "not like that". The same group is OK with a comedy act involving members in drag. Why? Because bad drag doesn't offend straight people - it makes us less threatening. "Look at that silly fag in the dress!". I have no issue with drag or drag for humor's sake. I do take offense to making a Pride concert a gay minstrel show pandering to straight members in the audience.
I say it every year and I'll say it again, what we should be fighting for and allowing ourselves is the ability for everyone to be and express their true identity. Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Bisexual, Transsexual - we should be making this a safer world for all of us. Not just gays and lesbians whose lives mirror straight society's norms.
Anything between consenting adults, short of murder and cannibalism, should be allowed. Any expression of identity should be allowed - are you a lesbian who is married to a man? That's cool. A shaved head tranny living as a woman with a dick? That's cool. Polygamists in the suburbs? Open relationships? Full time submissive and Master/Mistress? Monogamists porn stars? It's all the same.
We do not have a right to censor each other "for the better of the group" because all that really is is selling our brothers and sisters out for a little acceptance. Make no mistake, that acceptance won;t last - and then who will stand up for you?
