Gay Pride 2009 - a profound sense of shame and anger

Next month St Petersburg will once again boast the largest Pride Parade in the Southeast. Claiming some 60,000 in attendance if I recall correctly.

Where were they when we protested Charlie Crist's sham wedding after he supported Amendment 2? Fifty-eight thousand eight hundred of them were not there. Even if a third of them worked the second shift that day, that means that 40,000 of them were not there. Where were they?

This is the part that really pisses me off. While 200 of us were protesting in downtown St Pete - Georgie's Alibi was having happy hour and doing a brisk business. We asked them to close, flooding the cellars if you will, but they refused. I didn't visit all the gay bars in Pinellas and Hillsborough County, but given that it was Friday night I'm guessing that there were probably in excess of 1000 people in them at precisely the time we needed them.

OK, so you can't build a resistance on alcoholics and drug addicts- but the bars have traditionally been rallying vehicles, so I guess that has passed. We got more support from a local not-gay-specific church than we did the bars.

So I'm going to go to Pride, and I'm going to see people that I hold in contempt. People who wouldn't interrupt their social life to come let the governor know that what he did was wrong. It was in all the papers, gay and straight. It was on the news. You can't live in West Central Florida and not know that this was going to happen.

They will be at the parade, "out and proud"- my ass. They're a bunch of holiday homosexuals and I have little better than disgust for them at the moment.

I wished I could say that I am as active as you in the GLBTQ Community... however that would be a lie....


So I Send You A Bear Hug :hug: For All You Do......


You also may want to ready yourself for the flame throwers..... for being bold enough to point out some facts....


:loveya:

Orlando had a really good turn out at their Amendment 2 protest the Sunday after election day. Ours was much smaller, but better than the Crist thing.

There have been plenty of actions that I have missed, and I guess we all have a reason for any given absence, I was just disappointed then and it's aggravated by the fact that so many people seem to be able to find time for the fun stuff.

Is that really necessary? Get mad a Crist, yes, but get mad at people who are out trying to have a good time and celebrate? It's good that you are so passionate and work for GLBT equality, but you have to respect that on the bar/gay scene, there are lots of people who party who just want to party, get laid and not get involved in politics AT ALL. (And frankly, given Obama's pathetic record on gay rights, it's hard for me to blame people for ending up so cynical and turned off.) And the parade is yet another day when people will be looking to enjoy themselves and get laid, not get mad.

I got royally flamed.

I side with YOU, because YOU are correct.

I stopped going to Pride, because of what so obviously becomes STEREOTYPES to be latched on to. I can't support that. Especially the ones involving public flashing. That happened every year I was at Pride and, no, I don't support THAT behavior. No doubt it still goes on today.

I love the corporate support too: Coca Cola can claim they support us with all the tender piano background music all they want, though their human rights record in other countries kinda starts raising little red flags, but who cares, it's all about us you see... (not really, but we feel better because of the makers of a fizzy drink claiming we're okay. We'd be even more okay if we worked under obscene conditions too and paid jack shit...)

http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=coca+cola+human+rights+violations&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=s18&q=coca+cola+gay+rights&btnG=Search

Roseanne needn't have apologized either. Maybe to a small extent, but I - as a non-hetero man - knew what she was saying and to an extent she was right.

to show political support. yours was, you want gay people to be less flaming.

:shrug:

If you're so pissed off and have so much contempt for the people that are there, why the hell would you want to party with them for a day?

Going to Pride with that kind of attitude seems...stupid to me.

And are there for most everything. THEY, not I, are the kind of people who are always there for the community.

his frustration is hardly unusual. and i dont just mean gay rights activists. i mean all activists

Bars are good to spread the word, but volunteers? I don't think so. But go easy on them people get buzkill from politics

I've always been disgusted at the people who won't lift a finger to help themselves. I'd like to see the bars close on election day except to voters (and I can't vote, but I'm out canvassing and getting the vote out, regardless).

I agree politics can be a buzzkill, but so can being thrown in jail, having your marriage rights ripped away from you and losing your job because they couldn't be bothered.

Which is the bigger buzzkill?

I go to Pride to find people who are actually proud, rather than the ones trying to hide in plain sight.

1. not everyone cares about their rights, some people just want to get by life hoping someone else will take care of it

2. we all have different interests/passions

3. we cannot promote a cause if we cant love the people in it. even the ones who frustrate us.

4. i am sure at some time, you too were just a party gay and not a political gay

I'd go one further, we don't own anyone else's outrage, or lack of outrage.

What you are clearly angry at is not that people didn't listen but that you failed to communicate effectively. Your Plan A, of going to the gay bars and having followers throw themselves at you was a failure, and you are angry at reality.

Tough love here - not trying to be mean.

Campaigns from the grass root take while to take root. Campaign from political bully pulpits will always have the edge in a showdown.

So tactically, was a protest du jour the right thing? It did show the disinterest of the community. That means that using a grassroots protest against the bully pulpit exposed an exploitable weakness on our part, another good intention brick in the yellow brick road to hell.

Pride parade IS where we have to focus. There are political associations that work the entire year long, not just impulsively over a weekend, to make a statement. Your heart is definitely in the right place, please just don't donner party us when there's a rich buffet of real bigotry and apathy to dig into elsewhere.