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The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/2/2008 9:20:20 AM

CallaFirestormBW

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Ok, so I was at a gathering last evening, and the discussion came around (somehow... not sure how... Ok.. I admit -- it was all my fault!

) anyway... the discussion came around to one of my all-time favorite dreams... having a matched pair of HBW-collared human ponies, and our own little decorated cart, and having the boys pulling myself and Darling in the Gay Pride parade (somewhere along with the NLA group)...

One of the folks at the group mentioned that it would never happen, and I asked, very innocently, why not? It seemed perfectly adorable to me. He admitted that it was pretty adorable, but that the Gay Pride parade here didn't allow the NLA to march this year, and that next year, they were moving the parade out of the Montrose (our "gay and kinky" part of town) and into downtown, and going for a more "family-oriented" event... C'MON people... this is Gay Pride -- the most awesome little freak show of the year!!! A 'family' event? Oh, yes --- no nudity, no blatant sexually themed floats... the whole nine yards...

Ok, so I've decided that if they're actually going to do this, I'm not attending the Pride parade in Houston any more -- We'll just put together our -own- parade, in the late evening, for the people who are Proud and Loud, and leave the downtown parade for the "We're PC Pussies".

Calla Firestorm

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RE: The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/2/2008 9:43:47 AM

TheHungryTiger

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Time for me to live up to my reputation as a heretic .....

Im firmly in the camp that thinks a 'we are no difrent than you' message is exactly what alt-sexers shoudl eb aiming for. The 'Loud and Proud' camp is much more a deterement than it is a benifit.

We claim to want equality yet go out in public and act as difrently as we can posiably manage. We act in the most freakish way we can and yet get offended when we are called freaks. We claim to be a legal and political orgnization and then dont do anything but just raw sex sex sex.

I remember the film 'American Beautty' where the only two normal people in the whole movie were the two gay guys. I thought it sent a fantastic message that gay people are no difrent than anyone else. They are your friends and neighbors. Nothing freakish or outlandish at all. Just a polite reminder that we are NORMAL people. And yet the 'Loud and Proud' crew prosted the film claiming that it painted homosexuals in a negative light.

I remember when GayDay was first planed at DisenyWorld. The theme was 'we are no difrent than you'. Just having a gay couple holding hands together as they walked through the partk, without making a big fuss over it, sent the mesage of 'we are no difrent than you' and aimed for a message of equality. Now its just another stupid circut party. Two guys in purple mesh T-shirts and leather hotpants grinding againt each other while in line for magic moutian dosent exactly give a 'we are no difrent than anyone else' message.

An old TheOnion article probably puts it better than anythign I could say ..... http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28491

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RE: The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/2/2008 10:07:58 AM

BKSir

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I have to admit that I am of two minds on this subject.

First, yes, I agree, it's become nothing but sex and sex, and a bit of sex. Not that I mind seeing the cute go-go dancers on the floats by any means. But, it truly should be about us just being the neighbours, the friends, the co-workers, the every day people that everyone knows. When I see the people out there dressed in a thong and a smile, most of them that SHOULDN'T, just for the sake of public decorum and my own eyeballs, and many of the others prancing around like a bunch of crazed, hormonal high school students on spanish fly, I don't see much that I'm proud of.

However, that being said, the Pride Festivals (taking the parade out of the equation), that I've been to in Salt Lake City and Phoenix, have been fairly mild and enjoyable for the most part. The overwhelming majority of the people being just that, 'people'. Of course we had our fair share of 'freaks', but, that happens at all of the festivals, from the Jazz Festival to the Arts Festival, and Sundance. They are everywhere. WE are everywhere. As far as it being a 'family event', it is. We have couples, poly groups, parents, children, heterosexuals, teenagers, everyone at the festival, and I think that it should be expected that people act appropriately. I mean really, one wouldn't go into chuck-e-cheese and start dry humping someone elses leg, would they? Well, in general... Looking at all of the people that are at the festival, why would one do so in that situation either?

I'm proud of who I am, and make no excuses for it. Nor do I hide it. But, I don't dress in bright pink hot pants and baby blue spandex shirts... Even if I looked good in them, I wouldn't. I'm me. That's it, that's all. Just me. Sometimes it means taking my pet for a walk on his leash, sometimes it means dressing up nicely and going out to an elegant dinner with my partners, and sometimes, admittedly, it means prancing about in my bedroom (key words there, 'in my bedroom') like keith richards while listening to ABBA. But never, does it mean engaging in acts of frotage in public, around children and people who don't really want to see that kind of thing (about 98% of society).

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RE: The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/2/2008 10:39:21 AM

nejisty

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How is two guys going at it any different then heterosexuals groping and playing tonsil hockey in a cafe, movie theater, bus, sidewalk, or any other public place??

nejisty

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RE: The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/2/2008 11:01:38 AM

BKSir

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Frankly... it's not.

I don't really want to see either. I mean, yes, some public displays of affection are fine, but, there is a line between 'aww, how sweet', and 'DAMN! Get a room!'

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RE: The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/2/2008 11:05:37 AM

TheHungryTiger

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quote:

ORIGINAL: nejisty

How is two guys going at it any different then heterosexuals groping and playing tonsil hockey in a cafe, movie theater, bus, sidewalk, or any other public place??

nejisty

Its not difrent.

And when a hetrosexual couple is heavy petting eachother in public Im going to think "Holy shit people, get a room alrerady". ...... I guess that would imply that Im bigitoed and intolerate of hetrosexual couples now?

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RE: The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/2/2008 5:23:26 PM

CallaFirestormBW

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHungryTiger

Time for me to live up to my reputation as a heretic .....

Im firmly in the camp that thinks a 'we are no difrent than you' message is exactly what alt-sexers shoudl eb aiming for. The 'Loud and Proud' camp is much more a deterement than it is a benifit.

We claim to want equality yet go out in public and act as difrently as we can posiably manage. We act in the most freakish way we can and yet get offended when we are called freaks. We claim to be a legal and political orgnization and then dont do anything but just raw sex sex sex.

I remember the film 'American Beautty' where the only two normal people in the whole movie were the two gay guys. I thought it sent a fantastic message that gay people are no difrent than anyone else. They are your friends and neighbors. Nothing freakish or outlandish at all. Just a polite reminder that we are NORMAL people. And yet the 'Loud and Proud' crew prosted the film claiming that it painted homosexuals in a negative light.

I remember when GayDay was first planed at DisenyWorld. The theme was 'we are no difrent than you'. Just having a gay couple holding hands together as they walked through the partk, without making a big fuss over it, sent the mesage of 'we are no difrent than you' and aimed for a message of equality. Now its just another stupid circut party. Two guys in purple mesh T-shirts and leather hotpants grinding againt each other while in line for magic moutian dosent exactly give a 'we are no difrent than anyone else' message.

An old TheOnion article probably puts it better than anythign I could say ..... http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28491

Then why bother having a "Gay Pride" parade at -all-? It seems like exactly the opposite about what you're talking about... I'd be perfectly happy with having a "Twisted and Truly Happy People Parade" in it's place. I just want to show off my perfectly trained ponies in their pretty little flower-covered cart.

Edited to add: That being said, I don't really care if it's the Gay Pride parade (which was the first one I thought of because my experience at the parade in another state was that it was a 2-part party -- daytime family-ish parade, and then an evening parade that rivaled Mardi Gras in Rio.... both were fun, but I loved the evening parade -- it was just a -blast-.

CFB -- Proudly Perverse

< Message edited by CallaFirestormBW -- 8/2/2008 5:26:41 PM >

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RE: The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/2/2008 10:18:33 PM

TheHungryTiger

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quote:

I just want to show off my perfectly trained ponies in their pretty little flower-covered cart.

There are plenty of places you can do that. TFW comming up this month in Jersey has a very large ponyplay contengent. LeatherRetreat near baltomore the same. (Last time I was at LR they not only had a bunch of folks into ponyplay but set aside an entire afternoon just to have a pony show.) There are probably half a dozen other events that I cant think of at the moment.

Just because yoru local comunity decided that a 'gay pride' parade should actualy be a march in suport of equal civial rights instead of just another circut-party dosent meen that you no longer have a place to do ponyplay. And it dosent meen that gay people have stoped being proud of who they are.

Show off your ponies? To WHO exactly? If to other kinksters you still have the oportunity to do that. Heck, go to Folsom for the love of pete. But I have known too many 'loud and proud' jerkwads in my day. Their idea of 'showing off' is to get all up in the face of the ~close minded vanilias~ and screasm at them calling them all a bunch of puriticinal prudes for not lettign them do whatever them damn well please.

You may see a gay pride parade that has 'sold out'. I see an effort to actualy try and have a pride being about pride instead of sexual jollies justifing their lack of civility and decorm behinf a mask of 'pride'.

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RE: The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/3/2008 8:40:03 AM

CallaFirestormBW

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHungryTiger

Just because yoru local comunity decided that a 'gay pride' parade should actualy be a march in suport of equal civial rights instead of just another circut-party dosent meen that you no longer have a place to do ponyplay. And it dosent meen that gay people have stoped being proud of who they are.

Show off your ponies? To WHO exactly? If to other kinksters you still have the oportunity to do that. Heck, go to Folsom for the love of pete. But I have known too many 'loud and proud' jerkwads in my day. Their idea of 'showing off' is to get all up in the face of the ~close minded vanilias~ and screasm at them calling them all a bunch of puriticinal prudes for not lettign them do whatever them damn well please.

You may see a gay pride parade that has 'sold out'. I see an effort to actualy try and have a pride being about pride instead of sexual jollies justifing their lack of civility and decorm behinf a mask of 'pride'.

I see your point -- I truly do. I guess I just think that it's OK to not have everything go "PC". I don't see why both aspects can't still be present -- but without the

quote:

But I have known too many 'loud and proud' jerkwads in my day. Their idea of 'showing off' is to get all up in the face of the ~close minded vanilias~ and screasm at them calling them all a bunch of puriticinal prudes for not lettign them do whatever them damn well please.

... just an opportunity to enjoy -all- the aspects... I guess I just don't buy into the whole "puritanical is better" thing (and it -is- a side effect of the Puritan and Calvinist philosophies that pervade US culture) and the whole "Look at me, I'm so -normal and average- that I won't be any threat to you at all" thing. I've always enjoyed Pride. I've marched as a political activist, a spiritual activist... but that didn't stop me from having some fun, and enjoying the more outrageous, campy, and extreme folks and their contributions as well. I never forget that, when I was sitting on my ass in a college classroom, wondering if the school leadership and my parents were going to find out that I moved in with my two 'girlfriends' down the hall in the dorm and have me expelled, the outrageous, campy, extreme, and very visible members of the gay community were taking the heat so that today, I can say I'm bi, live in a same gender relationship for a decade, and raise my kids to realize that sexual orientation just is -- and that being outrageous is ok, and has value.

I wonder, sometimes, whether, in our attempt to 'mainstream' and be accepted, we cast off the most fascinating, interesting, and downright fun aspects of ourselves, and threw away a part of ourselves that deserves both recognition and acceptance because they -are- part of us. I feel like many of my "outrageously out" friends, and my favorite "bears" are being shut out of a 'welcoming' that only really wants to accept the folks who can slip into the little cardboard houses with their white picket fences and look "normal". I guess I'd never make it as a Puritan and I'll probably never mainstream well... not a huge surprise, but... *shrugs*.

CFB

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RE: The end of Gay Pride in Houston??? - 8/3/2008 9:58:04 AM

TheHungryTiger

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Try this example ..... I know the whole 'gay mariage' thing has been debated to death and I risk having the conversation go off the rails at this point but ......

Whenever some state passes a gay mariage law the one couple that gets all the press hype is the old couple who have been in a loging stabel comited relationship for over 50 years together.They show the perfect front of 'we are just like you, we are just like anyone else'.

Is that couple a sellout? Are they toned down and changed everything to be PC? Should we look down our noses at them and call them a traitor to the case because they are not constantly screaming 'We will fuck who we want to you prudes' at the top of their lungs to anyone who should happen to pass by? After all, since the buy a house together, get married, raise kids together, steriotype is what the 'evil christians' consider the idea, would a gay couple that wants to buy a house together, get maried, raise kids together just giving in to the demands of the 'evil christians'?

Christians point their fingers at gays and yell 'they are difrent than us' and its bigioted and homophobic. But somehow when gays point their fingers at christians and yell 'they are difrent than us' that suddenly becomes 'pride' and is somethign to be promoted? .....

I feel there is a lot more progress to be had by focusing on our similarities rather than dividing people into groups and pitting one group againt the other. And by focusing on how we are alike that dosent meen we have to 'cast off' the funn erotic horny aspects of our lifestyle. It only meens that the catch phrase'what I do in the bedroom is nobody eles business' actualy meens it is in the privacy of the bedroom and is not anyone elses business.

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