…we’re used to it.
When the gay pride parade becomes way more about corporate entitiies and way less about the rights of our gay citizens, maybe it’s been mainstreamed a little TOO much. After all, the parade has been, up until now, a fun and FABulous freak show. But this year, more than ever, it was Jagermeister and Starbuck’s and Alaska Airlines and any number of politicians who aren’t all particularly known for their identity with the gay rights movement…
Sure, the Dykes on Bikes opened the parade as always, but there
was a lot less electrical tape this year. I’m always touched to see the family organizations, and can you get enough of seeing the Sisters of Perpetual Indugence? I can’t. But a bunch of office workers in corporate t-shirts, one group after the other, marching through downtown? My brother said that if you didn’t know it was Pride, you might not even know it was Pride.
The last few times I’ve attended the parade, I’ve wandered down to Broadway thinking, oh, I’ll just stop in for a few minutes and have a look, then I’ll head home – and every time, I end up staying for the whole thing and I head home covered in swag and beads, foolishly sunburned and kissed by drag queens. This year, we watched for maybe an hour, then went to lunch.
You’re here, you’re queer, and yeah, we are used to it. You are too, it seems. If that was the goal all along, perhaps congratulations are in order. But your parade has gotten kind of, um, boring. Sorry.
The rest of my pics are here.
I haven’t attended Pride in Seattle in years–the last was probably 2000, as I moved to NZ shortly thereafter. But I see your point–it was getting very commercialed then as well. I know Microsoft was thinking of having a group march as well (GLEAM).
The best pride I ever attended was in Cincinnati OH. There were so few floats that a group of us just joined in the parade and marched up Main St, as mothers clutched their children to get them away from the evil homosexuals. Ah, those were the days…
Fun blog–I may link to it, if you don’t mind…
I’m glad it’s so big it has to move downtown. The last couple times we were on Broadway, it was so crowded that it made it unpleasant. That said, the number of booze sponsors was a little disheartening. Maybe we should all make a statement by going to the pride parade in Salt Lake City. They have one, but I bet they need a little more support. Or perhaps somewhere in Kansas. When parades in those places are mainstream enough to be boring, then we really will be used to it.
Genius. Sort of like going to register in a swing state when they need the vote more than you do. Outsourcing gay pride parades to places like Montana and Kentucky and (eek) Texass.