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So, when is the straight pride parade? When do I get to hold up traffic so that I can proclaim my sexuality to the masses? When do I get to walk down the street, hand in hand with a woman, like it’s a huge deal?
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2008.
30 Comments
Straight people get to celebrate our sexuality openly everyday and have been for centuries. Go to any bar and straight people are expressing their sexuality openly, even if it’s with the help of booze. Check out advertising, magazine, TV shows, movies, newspapers. You may not hold up traffic, but you certainly have plenty of venues in which to celebrate your straightness. It really wasn’t that long ago that being gay was a crime, and some are still afraid of retaliation from family and strangers if they come out. So yeah it’s a huge deal for gays to be able openly parade throughout the city. It’s never been a crime to be straight, so what do you need to celebrate?It shouldn’t be anyone’s business if you’re gay. Some girls like girls, some like boys. Big deal. But not everyone thinks that like, and so gays are treated like crap because of who they like. Celebrate away, I say. Plus, it’s a parade! Everyone loves a parade!
You’re so right, OP! Why CAN’T there be public events in which two straight people can celebrate their love… something involving a parade of cars… interfering with traffic…Oh wait, we do have that! They’re called WEDDINGS, a-hole.
When you can open a magazine and not see, “Miss Thang is living with a WOMAN! Gay secret revealed!” like this is the most shameful thing a person can do, be gay or bisexual, maybe then we won’t fucking need Pride Week. When I don’t get wide-eyed stares because I admit to liking another girl in a more-than-friends way, we won’t need Pride Week. Until people realize it isn’t a perversion….
Didn’t someone already post this a week or two ago? What’s wrong- not over it yet? I’ll say what I already said: Life is already one big straight parade!! Leave the soft boys (and goils) to their par-tay. Does it bother you? Stay home and watch Matlock re-runs.
people… it’s JUST a fucking parade!why not simply take it for what it is… a celebration.get the fuck-over-it
A straight parade would be so….boring! Get over it man.
I was there , it was awesome!! we were down by daltech
I think I fail to see the relation between being gay, and marching the streets in assless leather chaps. While the gay pride parade is relatively tame here in Halifax, I have seen the one in Toronto, and I can honestly say that alot of pride celebrations blur the line between homosexuality and fetish. I have no problem with anyones sexual preferences, and if someone wants to put on a gimp mask and flog their partner with a cricket bat in the privacy of their own homes, then more power to him (or her), but if you are looking to celebrate your sexuality, and show society that homosexuals are just people like everyone else, a 40 year old man thats 50lbs overweight, wearing a feather boa and fishnet stockings, with a buttplug in one hand, and his partners ass in the other, in the middle of the day on spring garden road probably isn’t going to enlighten the masses to the equality of the homosexual and heterosexual communities.
Hoon apparently doesn’t understand the history of pride celebrations in that they are a tribute to those who fought the Stonewall and more current battles against an anti-homo society. You’ll always see the leathermen and drag queens in the parade since they were fighting for our equal rights from the start and continue to do so in current times.You say it blurs the line between fetish and homosexuality and that is incorrect when many like myself enjoy a life governed by the leathermen beliefs and ethics. While I may not always be bared-arsed in chaps I can often be seen wearing subtle or not-so-subtle hints to what I believe in and how I live my daily life. Too bad if you don’t like it, its certainly not directed at you and no one forces you to look. Just like no one forces you to watch the parade.So you’d rather not see the overweight man wearing something you find offensive? Well then please do something about the hetero folks who do the same exact thing, but since they are straight you won’t complain about the overweight man or woman wearing something that isn’t flattering on them. Nor should you be saying anything since everyone is entitled to their individuality, nobody made you or me the authority on morals.My suggestion would be to steer clear of future pride celebrations if you are going to be traumatized by the participants. You don’t here us complaining about the other 364 days a year when straights dress differently or hold hands or kiss their partners and all without a word said about it.
I think, since this one is 21 years old, that it’s less about homophobia and more about opening up society as a whole and having a good time. If that leatherman can parade through the streets with his mincing gimp, well hey, suddenly the man who wants to wear a skirt, the girl who wants to have her head, or the two totally regular men can hold hands when they go grocery shopping. it’s about being accepting, and not taking anything, least of all sexuality, too seriously. it’s fun. and it’s one of the best parades I’ve ever seen, way more interesting and hey free condoms galore!
Straight people are into leather and other kinks, too. Just read Savage Love. Maybe we just don’t have the balls to parade down our streets showing it off. Being straight doesn’t mean being vanilla. Thank God!
unlike halifax, montreal has festivals and parades all summer long, celebrating many different cultures & communities, and they even shutdown the streets (no cars) to make it safe and enjoyable for pedestrians, sometimes for a week or more at a time, in neighbourhoods and communities all over the city. nobody complains and everyone has a good time, young and old alike; even the merchants bring their wares out onto the streets (and make even MORE $$$ from all the foot traffic). parades, festivals, music and street culture in general are essential to montreal’s joie de vivre.halifax, on the other hand, has its stagnant head stuck so far up city officials’ tight asses, there’s no fun into it, and about all its corrupt masters manage to get done is concoct a litany of STUPID fucking bylaws, prohibiting & restricting what people can do at every turn.it’s no wonder people don’t stay here… this place is a boring, unsophisticated, backwater shithole, and many of its residents are a fucking embarrassment (drunk & violent in the streets, swarmings, gunshots at night, et al). christ, even the graffiti ‘artists’ here are pathetic, taggers more like it, cuz they got no fucking artistic abilities, that’s for damn sure.i may have grown up here, but halifax has never felt like HOME. and for you smart-ass pricks, yeah, i probably will leave, so don’t even bother ‘suggesting’ it.
Hoon at one time i use to be like you, but i have a friend from high school that is gay. I would defend him and celebrate his life with him. So if he were to parade down barrington street i would support that.
Your parade is every damn day, Congrats. You have the privilege of being able to walk down the street holding the hand of your significant other without worrying about being harassed or attacked. The point of the Pride parade is to give the rest of the community a chance to celebrate our lives and our families. Why so defensive?
Singling out the leathermen, eh? Of all of the hundreds of people in the parade, dressed in shorts and comfy walking sandals and faces painted and whatnot, the straight guys always seem to be most offended by the daddies. My suggestion is not to devote all your fantasy time to gay sex if you’re not into it. You guys were probably listening to Judas Priest in high school and watching porn with your best male friends. (I’d love to know how many homophobes are ‘that way’ just so nobody finds out about their teen circle jerks. I’m gonna rattle off a ball park figure and say 92%).
Hoon, ya fucking idiot, adjust your timezone or something, your posts are showing up ahead of everyone else’s by 1hour… unless you’re intentionally trying to hijack the conversation by having your verbal diarrhea appear at the top of the list?? twat!
That’s the Bitching Hour, techcafe. Posts made between 1 and 2 am get stuck at the top until 2 o’clock the next afternoon. That’s why nobody with any couth posts during that hour.*sigh* Noobs…
Actually, I thought Hoon had a pretty good comment,,, but the 1AM posting thing is the cyber equivalent of walking into a room of new people you are about to meet for the first time,,, and you have three feet of dirty toilet paper dragging behind you…So I lost interest in whatever it was that Hoon had to say… Maybe next time…But Gingy and that other guy really ought to know better…!!!
When, when, when? How about today, tomorrow, and the rest of the year? Congratulations, OP, you’re straight. You’ve got it so tough, having to deal with the fact that someone else gets a fun parade for standing up for basic human rights and freedoms, when all you get is the priveledge of living in a country with those rights and freedoms that you don’t have to fucking fight for. Oh, what’s that, you don’t need those rights and freedoms? Well, someone does. So if you don’t want to support that, or fight for that, go to the Dome and celebrate how great it is to be straight by entering a wet t-shirt or sexy legs contest. That’s the ‘straight pride’ parade you’re after, it happens every fucking night downtown. Personally, I find those ‘parades’ a little too overtly sexual, but maybe someone like you might appreciate seeing other straight people revel in their right to public displays of their lifestyle and sexuality. Maybe it will reinforce for you that it’s so okay to be straight, you can do it every goddamn day or night in full public view all year long. You can stop traffic too, you know – have you tried playing in it?
Exactly… it’s a fetish freakshow. Wonder how long it will take before they realize people are laughing AT them and not WITH them.
The only reason there is any controversy whatsoever about the Gay Pride Parade is that there are still people who think being gay is a Bad Thing. If it was any other group or culture having a parade, there would be no controversy. If the Greek community decided to have a parade, would we have a bunch of non-Greeks bitching about it? Probably not. Would a Native Pride parade have non-natives snarking about the traffic holdups? Would a parade of the Horticulturists Society have non-gardeners rolling their eyes? No. The ONLY reason we see this sniping is because of the stigma that still surrounds homosexuality. And that is exactly why the Pride celebrations are neccessary. BTW, all you people saying, “I’m straight. Where’s MY parade?”, are free to organize one. Get a committee together, build some floats, get a parade permit, and organize your own damn parade. Just like the gay community does. Nothing is stopping you.
um, I was laughing with them keith. with them. it’s close minded people like you that make it neccessary- no one I saw at the parade was laughing at anyone. it was a fabulous expression of freedom and a display that victorian morals and shame-based sexuality are on the way out. no one needs to be embarrassed about sex, we all do it, so why not celebrate it?
Re: “Teen Circle Jerks”, did I miss out on something as a teen? Seriously, my girlfriend and her sister have these weird ideas of a bunch of boys sitting around jerking off but honestly, in the world of teen boys I couldn’t imagine a more unlike scenerio. Is this for real?
cranky, I guess I’m not the only person who’s been told about what some boys get up to when they’re experimenting. I remember thinking, “isn’t that kind of gay?” but these boys were not gay and didn’t grow up to be. They grew up to be quite straight, actually. Very, very straight. I doubt many men admit they did stuff like this now, but your girlfriend and her sister and I were obviously privy to some goings-on back in the day. One of my first examples of extreme homophobic irony was hearing about one guy’s ‘little soldiers’ hitting another guy’s pant leg, and they laughed about it the way boys do when something gross happens or someone gets humiliated. I’ll never forget feeling like “what exactly is happening here? Because for a bunch of teenage boys who make fun of fags, they sure do enjoy watching each other masturbate…”
ok and that right there is why pride parades are a good thing! the idea of being able to be open enough to admit that maybe you are questioning a little bit, without having it instantly mean you’re gay (because I think a lot of people question or even experiment with their sexuality), and without having to preface it with ‘but it wasn’t in a gay way’. it’s just the idea of normalizing different expressions of sexuality in a way that peopel can fluidly expreiment and question etc without having to instantly be in a category
We’re lucky to live in a country where being gay or lesbian or bi or anything else is somewhat accepted. There are countries where you would be killed for being gay.
wtf is your point, hokie??this is Canada, not Iran/China/et al, so why should gays/lesbians (minorities in general) expect/accept anything less than zero tolerance for bigotry/discrimination?for you to say “we’re lucky to live in a country… blahblahblah” is utter bullshit, dismissive and clichéfuck, idiots like you piss me off
um, because there still IS discrimination and intolerance! taht’s why you need events like pride week- it’s fun, primarily, but it also does a lot to keep moving forward towards totally acceptance and tolerance.you still have things like Black Hertiage events; that struggles been going on a lot longer, and they still need those events. so why woulk dyou expect gay and lesbian rights to ahve progressed so much faster? tolerence is hard earned and it quickly slips away- pride events stop that from happening.
how stupid are you to ask that question?
This topic is screwy, everything is showing up as being posted at 4am, and sometimes in the future, so the order is completely messed.