The parade is just a few blocks from my house. In Houston, the parade is at night, to avoid the extreme heat of the day. Ideally, a night parade should be even better because the floats can be brightly colored in all those rainbow colors.
When I saw the parade last year, I was left with the impression that maybe this gay pride parade has just become a bit too mainstream. No more nead to holler “get used to it” any more (even the “God hates fags” bunch were largely ignored). The top merchants in the city all are sponsoring floats. Budweiser and Lite both had nice neon floats. Complete with a giant bottle in leather gear. The parade lasted for a very long time.
What I wanted to see was more of a Mardi Gras type of parade. Transvestites in cages. Giant Pink poodles. Freaky lipstick lesbians. Tank top cowboys line dancing. Maybe a little more debauchery. Like that parade the fundies filmed to scare their congregations. Heck, there were several church floats.
Its good that the gay community has become more accepted, but has the annual parade become too inclusive to be real fun?
I despise the gay pride parade in Houston. Not that I have anything against anyone’s sexual orientation; I don’t. But they trash Westheimer. Last year I walked pregnant through a foot of trash to the grocery store because of them. They need to frickin’ clean up after themselves. Sorry, I know that’s off topic.
The year before that I walked in the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Parade as part of the Rocky Horror cast. I was working as a preschool teacher then, and one of my kids and his whole family were there on the sidelines!! And of course they recognized me. His mom still doesn’t believe that I’m straight.
I’m not sure if the parade was “safe” enough for a preschooler or if his mom was just weird.
I do kinda agree. There are just too many straight people in the bloody march! It is difficult, because you know, you want to be inclusive, and not fall prey to the same prejudices we are still sometimes victims of, but hey, this is a gay pride march! Notting Hill Carnival (in London) has the same problem, in that it was originally a celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture and now most of the crowds are white (though the actual participants are still from the community).
Next week I’m taking part in the Mardi Gras parade in London, so this time I’ll be able to see it from that side.
Btw Cess, I will have my preschooler with me in this parade (because the political side of it is about parenting rights), although I am going to double-check beforehand that she’ll be safe and welcome. I completely understand about the mess - it’s not just gay pride marches that have this problem of course, but all events of the type should clean up after themselves!
So all the Gay Pride parades are scheduled for the same day across the country? We have ours tomorrow. They showed some footage from last year and … well … I actually dislike most of our parades here anyway since they all seem so unimaginative. Ooh look people in cars waving. Ooh look, people in trolleys waving (they had the rainbow flag out). Although the Chinese New Year parade had lots of cool stuff. (boy I rambled a bit off course there.)
I don’t like parades, period, so I don’t really care.
BTW, did anyone see the recent episode of the Simpsons when they had a gay pride parade? They had the gays in the closet float-and inside the booths came out the voices of Smithers and Patty Bouvier.
Part of the reason is the organizations that put on these parades and events.
On the one hand, we should applaud those who volunteer and work for the better part of a year to get all the permits, organize and plan the events.
On the other hand, the people who are on these boards are usually conservative in approach ("We’ve done it like this evey year, why change now?), timid in investment (“Gee - that’s more money than I make in a year - couldn’t we just put some crepe paper around the trees, like we did last year?”) and often they are just opposed to any changes for fear of rocking any boats.
The best plan would be to hire professional events planners, and use a local board only to oversee expenditures and income.
I know there are those who praise the old “grass roots” approach, but this is now a multi-million dollar industry - corruption is starting to seep in some of these organizations and either you do the Gay Pride festivals with professionalism and class, or you are always going to fall back on the same, tired parades and fests as you had last year, and the year before and the year before…
As far as being “less gay” - I like to think of it as more inclusive - I think it is great that local non-gay families come to watch the parades - they are supposed to be fun (except in New York where political relevance is the sole goal).
I was amazed to see that this year, over 600,000 were at the Berlin parade, and over 500,000 at the parade in Paris…who knows, maybe the Europeans will breathe some new life into the events.
When I got home from Pride yesterday (NYC), my dad asked me how it was. “A carbon copy of last year,” I said, “but not as exciting.” Last year was my first Pride. This year, I wasn’t as excited, and while the rush of riding down a float, dancing, as it hits Christopher is still lovely, the afterwards crowding, the inability to get ANYWHERE due to blocks being cut off, etc, made it a lot less fun.