"Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."

[hermionesviolin]

I saw this on friendsfriends:

As someone who pretty much exemplifies passing, a feminine-looking bisexual woman who could drop out of sight without a problem, I care about the visibility of Pride parades. I know that some people don't appreciate the way the parades tend to show queerness at its "worst" - really flamboyant drag queens and naked people and leather and all kinds of sexual deviancy. But to me, those things are important to keep in mind, especially now, especially when we're starting to, well, blend.

Pride started as a memorial - a commemoration of the Stonewall riots. It started as a way to keep in mind the moment when we stopped being okay with being pushed around. And "we" in that place, at that time, were not well-dressed successful parents and members of society.

[...]

Unlike many in the queer community, I do strongly support the fight for gay marriage and gay adoption and gay acceptance in the mainstream. But I will never support furthering that goal by leaving behind those of us who aren't the mainstream, because they fought back first, and they still spend more time fighting than I ever will.

-kalpurna

I sometimes hear those criticisms myself, and I never have good answers to them, in large part because I am a "Look, we're just like you" assimilationist, so the flamboyant parts of the parade don't particularly speak to my personal sense of community or goals (though I do think they're fun).  But the history of Stonewall is so easy to forget.

Comments

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never been very comfortable with flamboyance of any sort, particularly the leather queens and naked in your face types. I wish I could say it's because they "don't particularly speak to my personal sense of community or goals" but mostly it's because they challenge my notions of conventional gender roles. Or else my so-called modesty.

But kalpurna's post makes a good argument and you're right, history is so easly forgotten.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I'm still so enculturated from Smith that I am all about fucking with conventional ideas of gender (and honestly I think even before Smith I wanted to dress baby boys in pink -- mostly because the dominance of pink-for-girls so frustrated me, since I didn't even like pink personally) and have like no TMI filter, incl. re: other people's nudity.