Progress? I think this video is a BACKSTEP!



(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0sNTz18jMg)

The language used in this video is disturbingly homophobic. I think that this video itself is outlandish and divisive. First thing is first. PRIDE has NEVER been MEANT as a service to the straight community. The first PRIDES and every PRIDE ever wasn't about, "Let's show straight people what we're all about." PRIDE actually has nothing to do with the straight community 'at large,' and the only thing is has to do with the straight community at all are the pockets like PFLAG and allies that come support us (all of whom really could care less if Mr. Leather Michigan is walking around cracking his whip for fun.)
PRIDE is like our birthday. On your birthday, you don't do what everyone else wants. Your birthday isn't to put forward your best face and try and impress people.
On your birthday, you do whatever the heck you want!
PRIDE is a celebration of the LGBT community--the WHOLE LGBT community, not just the Log Cabin Republicans or the suits in the Human Rights Campaign (who, by the way, I happen to march with every year). You see, the gay community is a lot like the straight community in that we are humans and as humans we deserve equal rights and protections under the law.
However, the gay community ISN'T just like the straight community in many ways. Being gay is about freedom, and no matter what you try and say, it REALLY IS all about sex. Our sexuality DOES define us. We wouldn't be asking for equal rights if it WASN'T about sex. It is SEX that SEPARATES us from straight people. You see, our love is the same. Our hopes and dreams are the same. But it is the SEXUAL ATTRACTION AND BEHAVIOR that separates us, and for centuries kept us cruelly closeted.
Then came Stonewall.
After Stonewall, Our community learned it was unhealthy to hide who we are in the closet. We were no longer going to be relegated to living our lives in the shadows, in secrets, behind people's backs. Our lives were going to be the same in the open as they are in the dark. Sure, I disagree with some of the extreme stuff--the same as I disagree with ALL public nudity, whether its at PRIDE or running across the field at Tiger Stadium. But What PRIDE is for me, is a big opening of the closet to be free and celebrate who you are, and damn the rest of the world for not accepting you. That's what the first PRIDE march in San Francisco and New York in 1970 was about. That's what every PRIDE march ever since has been about.
So as for the leather daddies and go-go boys: they're harmless. They aren't TRYING to represent the whole gay community, nor should they. They are representing themselves. As long as no wangs are popping out, and no cheeks are getting shown off, let them celebrate just as the Dykes on Bikes get to celebrate, just like the PWAs get the celebrate, the gay cowboy line dancers get the celebrate, and--of course--the drag queens: who we should not soon forget are the whole reason we have PRIDE and why Stonewall happened in the very first place!
We need to celebrate ourselves and celebrate eachother. The gay community is about openness, expression, tolerance and unity. The rest of the year in our press conferences, op-eds, petitions, lobbying and face to face conversations we are asking for tolerance from the rest of America. Then, on the weekend of the year that is TRULY our own and TRULY about us, we should show tolerance to one another, and mirror back what we expect.
Happy PRIDE EVERYONE. See you next year!