Looking back, I think I missed a few key points. I'm too used to talking politics the way some people talk weather and I tend to overlook certain important details.
I think if anyone here is critical of pride events and has never been to one, I hope you can make it out to one someday just to see what it's like. For the most part, it's all really pretty benign and not as scary as some of you might have imagined it to be. Who knows, you might even have fun.
I know a lot of people here and irl say that they are comfortable with themselves and that they don't need pride. That's fine, but I don't see why they feel the need to come down hard on other people who are just acting out as part of a celebration. It seems to me that if you are comfortable with yourself, you wouldn't have any reason to be concerned with how someone else dresses in public, unless you
are overtly concerned with how other people judge you based on someone else's actions, in which case it seems that a part of you might still feel threatened by public perception, and maybe you're not completely over it yet.
I know that the media likes to put the spotlight on the parades, but the people in the streets do eventually take off their costumes and go home and are pretty much normal the rest of the time. And since we live in the digital age and user-generated media is gaining ground, I think we all have a lot more resources at our disposal to use to represent ourselves in whatever way we want. There's no reason to be too critical of someone else's personal expression in cases like these, I feel. You can be you, and they can be themselves, and you can't represent them anymore than they can represent you.
Not to mention that for pride parades and other events, it's all just a stage. People don't travel long distances and gather together for just a stroll through the park. Normally, they want to see a show. And the organizers try to deliver on that.
It's because of nonsense like this that social progress has always been painfully slower than technological progress.
I think I've mentioned somewhere before that you can shout at a schizophrenic for as along as you want and tell him that the voices in his head are not divine powers. It's not going to work because he, due to the chemicals in the brain, hears those voices as if they were real. It doesn't matter that you can't hear them; he can. So, to approach the situation and handle it, you have to take into account where he's coming from. Maybe you need to calm him down, call a shrink and get him on some meds before you try to do anything else with him.
You ever wonder why technological progress doesn't solve the world's problems? A lot of scientists seem to think in that way. They're not all wrong, but you can't ignore the other forces at work in the world when you're trying to implement a game plan. Things like cultural upbringing and psychology do exert pressure on individuals and societies, and they do matter.
I think if humanity existed in a vacuum and if we could isolate all the variables from a situation before proceeding, you would probably be 100% correct in your approach. Unfortunately, I don't think that's possible.
until gay rights are fully realized, the struggle will continue, and so too will the pride parades, so that 1 weekend a year, the world can be reminded that there is a giant community of people who still do not enjoy the freedom they deserve.
On that note, the Fourth of July holiday is coming up in the US. People don't generally get together to discuss history or the current state of the union. Normally it's all BBQs and fireworks. I don't see anything wrong with that, actually. People just like celebrating. It's an excuse to get together and cook and wear stupid hats and gather in an open to field to watch some bright shiny things explode in the sky. Doing silly festive things just for the sake of it isn't a gay thing. It's just kind of a people thing.
I may not even support the politics of the US at times, but I tend to just say that a celebrations is just a commemoration. It is more or less what you make of it.
