I’m sitting here with the cat, killing a little time before I head off to the Boston Gay Pride Parade. I also need to grab some sunscreen before I leave.
I have an ambivalent relationship to Pride. The first NY Gay Pride was an anniversary march for the Stonewall Riots. I miss the deep politics that caused Pride to begin. I love the way queer folks come together to celebrate during these times. I get a little tired of corporate sponsorship and constant advertising–we’ve become more of a market niche than a political community. Whatever, that’s the context today.
The first Pride Parade I went to was in Des Moines, Iowa in 1993. I was a student at Iowa State, and a friend of mine and I drove the 30 miles to Des Moines in order to march. It was more in the spirit of the early marches–a mass of people parading down the street, being public. It had little of the feel of these larger parades. There were fewer organized groups and fewer people lining the streets. It was also probably more moving and powerful.
My favorite Pride Parade moment was a couple years ago in Minneapolis. SCOTUS had recently issued its Lawrence decision, and Strom Thurmond died the same day. Mayor R.T. Rybak ended up being placed right directly in front of the Twin Cities’ gay marching band (yup, a gay marching band). Their melodie du jour was Y.M.C.A. There was Mayor Rybak jumping down the parade route doing all of the arm signs and getting the crowd to go along. The mood was very different a while later, when the late Senator Paul Wellstone’s green bus rolled down the parade route…that brought many a tear (and still does). I also remember that day because in the evening at the bar I was holding my beer against my face to try and cool it off; I lost several layers of skin from that sunburn.
It’s been less than a year since W’s re-election, with closeted gay men (Ken Mehlman, Dan Gurley…) helping him run the most anti-gay campaign since 1992. Since that election, the administration has continued its systemic assault on gay equality, and the Theocratic Right has increased its attacks on our communities. We’ve also seen Connecticut enact Civil Unions and a few other states and localities add sexual orientation to their anti-discrimination and bias-motivated violence statutes. Queers have been marryin’ each other in Massachusetts for over a year now.
These are interesting times to be queer in America. Our national culture has changed dramatically since I went to that parade in Des Moines. Teaching my Queer Communities and Social Movements at Boston College this spring really highlighted that for me. The world is completely different for my students than it was for me, a mere 12 years ago. When I was a student at Iowa State, the only place I could by a copy of The Advocate in Ames was at the adult book store. Bay Windows is now distributed on the campus of Boston College. One of my students this semester even asked me, “You mean AIDS hasn’t always been here?” (I think that’s the first time I was stunned into silence in the classroom.)
We’ve made amazing strides since I started going to Pride. Things are getting better culturally, if not politically. This Pride, though, is about telling our opponents You will not push us back into the closet! That is their goal. I destroyed that bugger years ago, and I’ll never go back. It’s a destructive place, and their agenda is a hateful one. The desire to reinstitutionalize the closet is a desire to do actual harm in people’s lives.
We’ve got a lot to be proud of. As communities, we’ve survived some pretty hideous shit. We’ve changed segments of society, and have made some serious political changes. We’ve created vibrant cultures. We ain’t done yet.
HAPPY PRIDE
