Reevaluating pride
What does PRIDE mean?
The Gay Pride week festivities are full throttle in Halifax. Toronto had its big week in June. But has the time come to reevaluate what it all means?
In the wake of legalized same-sex marriage and accepted same-sex adoption it is, perhaps, time that the homosexual community started looking at celebration/reactionary/activist events as both counter-productive and a touch anachronistic.
There is no such a thing as a “gay” collectivity – the group is as fractured, diverse, and fragmented as “straight” culture. Indeed, the mainstream has embraced, for the most part, homosexual marriage as an aspect of civil liberties the same way many Americans embrace gun ownership as a civil rights issue — whether they like guns or not.
Have we not gone post-gay? Do genital displays and overt hyper-sexuality really need to be part of the branding of gay culture today?
Recent tabloid covers in the Maritimes featured a drag queen trying to look like Paris Hilton accompanied by a headline about making your own porn. But is this further self-stereo-typing and in-your-face sensibility really relevant anymore? The new reality is increased mainstream acceptance.
For some in the gay community, conformity is beyond their self-concept. Instead, old school indulgence and sexual flaunting is still the order of the day.
In fact, for some, conformity is a threat.
The mainstream is growing up — will you?
Now that is pride.