Dont’ forget those MTV beach parties where I have seen people (blurred out) having sex in a big crowd of people. Gay people hardly have a monoploy on boorish behavior.
Back to the OP for a minute (althoug I’m enjoying the “gays are icky,” “no they aren’t,” “are too,” “nahhh!” battle - as well as Uncle Toby’s surreal proposition - which nearly invalidates my own marriage as well - since we have a “miracle surprise baby”), I’d like to witness my own personal conversion story.
Back in highschool (early 1980s) I was a Nice Catholic, Republican Girl. With Nice, Catholic, Republican morals. (Don’t let anyone tell you no one ever changes their mind on the “big” issues).
I went to college, and began to liberalize a little - but mostly on a personal level. And I still though that being gay was icky. I had been exposed to the “no one chooses to be hated” school of thought, so I’d made that leap. But icky. Discussing rights was just unpleasant, because you had to cross the icky line.
In college I ended up running the student union film program. The year before I became chair, one of our members suggested a gay themed series - we vetoed it because we thought his suggestion was tacky (I still think it was - this would have been around 1985 or 1986 and he was talking about Rock Hudson movies - and no one on the board was gay).
The next year I was in charge and a woman from my film classes approached us with a proposal for a properly done Gay Lesbian film festival. She certainly had her creditials in the GLBT community. Her proposal was well thought out. She was able to demonstrate a market for the films. I knew her on a personal level slightly, and respected her. (I was too naive to figure out she was a lesbian, I now have better Gaydar.).
I was uncomfortable with the whole idea (gays are icky, right?). But it caused me to look at the idea and at my principles, and determine that “gays are icky” was no reason to turn her down.
So in about six weeks I went from borderline homophobia to being identified with gay culture in the Twin Cities as the chair of the program that sponsered the film festival - being quoted in the Twin Cities mainstream and gay media on Gay and Lesbian film (about which I still know almost nothing - my quotes were always the “We feel that this is a watershed series and will allow people - gay and straight - to see a wide variety of important seldom shown film” kind.) Since many people now assumed I was a lesbian, I had little to fear from my own homophobia - and I had clarity in my principles.
So now I am the type of person with no close gay friends or relatives, who still bothers to show up at the Gay Pride Festivals on occation and join the PFLAG chapters at work and self identifies as “mostly straight”.
Hmm. There is anti-semitism in America, of course. There is internet connections leading to America. Therefore, there is anti-Xism, where x is not necessarily real and ranges from [-infinity, infinity]. It’s the miracle of communication.
Now, can it be shown that there are real, lasting policies by non-Jewish people that make it harder for Jewish people to exist in American society?
Mardi Gras is not a ‘straight pride’ event by any stretch of the imagination. I have NEVER heard of or seen a person a walking down B street holding a sign that says ‘Straight and Proud!’.
Girls gone wild is ultra-tame porn (I think, never seen it apart from the commercials), but again, the purpose of the tapes is to excite and whatnot, not to demonstrate in favor of heterosexuality.
Mummers Parade?
And don’t forget, it doesn’t really matter what 90% of ‘gay-pride’ events are comprised of; CNN only airs the freak-show float portion, so that is what people see. Not a savoury public image.
Freedom of expression isn’t what the OP is about; it is about mainstream America accepting homosexuals. Of course you have freedom of expression; but the flipside is that people have the freedom to choose who to accept and who to reject.
You have to play to the center, ala Clinton. Show people that gay people do not all walk around in buttless leather pants and listen to Cher, and you will go a long ways towards eliminating (or marginalizing) many of the gay stereotypes out there. I just feel that the gay-pride events, at least the clips I see on TV, do more to reinforce said stereotypes then eliminate them.
I live in a gay-ole town. We are not only happy, but have the 2nd largest gay community in Michigan. And what did the gay people bring to here? Nice stores, excellent coffee houses and restaurants, and a wickedly good tax-base. That is the sort of stuff that needs to be publicized.
Of course, the obvious reason why you don’t see “Straight Pride” parades is that society has not spent decades, if not centuries, telling straight people that they should be ashamed of who they are.
Brutus, I like to think that most people have the ability to judge people on an individual basis; that people don’t see one example of a group that they object to, and then decide that all people in that group are exactly the same. Because that would be stereotyping, you see, and that’s wrong, you know.
Besides which, we’re not arguing for the right to be exactly like straight people. If we do that, then why come out of the closet at all? We have the right to be who we are, to behave as we do, without hurting anyone, and not be denied our legal rights because of it.
And please keep in mind that gay pride parades are one of the only things that got us into the public eye, one of the passive resistance tactics that has made this whole revolution possible. People don’t pay much attention to politics, but they sure do like a parade.
Who was it that said, “Every day is straight pride day?”
Sure seems that way when you’re not.
Esprix
Like I’ve always said, if we’re trying to get equal treatment and rights only for those queer folk who most emulate the straight ideal, we don’t even deserve to get it for them.
Visit http://www.adl.org/main_hate_crimes.asp and take a look at the list of overt anti-semitic hate crimes in the past few years. In addition, I’ve personally witnessed many people express anti-semitic thoughts (related to hiring, dating, etc) without knowing that I was Jewish. It’s still very easy to find people saying that the Jews own the banks, the media, etc.
Granted, the level of overt anti-semitism has decreased in polite society in the US since the 1950’s or so, but it certainly hasn’t disappeared.