It’s summer time and the rainbow-flag christening of Gay Pride season is in full bloom.
This past weekend, pride celebrations across the country commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a landmark moment that revolutionized the approach to gay liberation in America.
Over the weekend, multitudes of people paraded to cities such as Chicago, New York City, and even our neighbor to the west, St. Petersburg (Orlando has its own incarnation of pride in October) to celebrate the lives and progress of members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.
But, for some, all that glitters may not be gold.
In a time when LGBT issues are at political forefronts, some within the community worry that images of half-dressed leather daddies and opulent drag queens — cue Cher music — parading down Main Street USA all too often become overly-sexualized blurbs on the local news station. Some fear that such images serve as flamboyant means of further isolating the LGBT community from mainstream acceptance.
Unfortunately, major media outlets have come to be known for notoriously sensationalizing gay pride events. Instead of documenting a fair and responsible depiction of the day’s proceedings, news stations, more often than not, will recap the day’s festivities by showing images of feather boas and men in Speedos.
It’s often argued that this image, associated with gay pride by most people who have never been to a parade, may detract from social goals accomplished at the event.
A minority of the community chooses to showcase their creativity through choreographed routines and intricate, sometimes skimpy, costumes during parades.
Detractors – both within the heterosexual and LGBT communities – sometimes pose the view, “How can a group demand equal rights if they shove their sexuality in people’s faces?”
Gay pride parades, and the many associated events, aren’t necessarily for the mainstreamed world – they are for the LGBT community and its supporters. A main goal of these events is to instill and perpetuate a feeling of acceptance and community.
Many times, people who feel ostracized for their sexuality experience little exposure to an accepting culture. Parades and other such functions provide the community with visibility for younger generations (high school and college students), providing an opportunity for those who may have very few opportunities to establish any relationship with a community.
While parades usually act as celebratory events, a gay pride parade demonstrates a political statement of recognition for sexually marginalized people groups. Pride parades enable a sociopolitical gathering for similarly treated individuals – or those who the general public lump into encompassing categories – to come together and promote visibility.
Parades encourage both congenial and political discourses. Different advocacy groups are represented and education surrounding LGBT issues are discussed in the public domain.
The every-day reality for the LGBT community is not colorful beads or parade floats. LGBT citizens in America are still denied equal rights and treatment based solely on whom they see romantically. The mentality of “what happens between the sheets shouldn’t be taken to the streets” only further silences and stigmatizes those who do not fit society’s view of acceptable sexual practices.
A pride parade represents one time during the year that all sub-cultures of the LGBT community come together and declare the validity of their existence. It’s been 40 years since the Stonewall riots and LGBT people no longer want to “keep it to themselves.”
These events display not only a vibrant brotherly and sisterly love, but also more importantly, a human love.
So while some may not want to hop on parade floats and march in the gay (happy) celebration, maybe it’s not so bad to grab a balloon and watch on the sidelines instead of from the sofa.
It’s possible that a new view may just change the accepted beat of the marching drum.
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