Stonewall 33: New York G.L.B.T. Gay Pri Para - 2002

Contents:

• GAY PRI CONONTS AN INTY CRISIS
• GAY PRI
• 13 BIGGT GAY PRI PARAS THE WORLD
• THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
• THE HYPERTROPHY OF GAY PRI

GAY PRI CONONTS AN INTY CRISIS

For years, this cy has staged one of the natn’s largt gay pri celebratns, showsg a muny that is no ge mory, but a rnerstone of San Francis’s power creasgly has meant participatn by gay bsmen, rporatns and polil nservativ--a sign to some of the muny’s ever-expandg assiatn to the a growg number of old-school, left-leang gay activists are nvced that their movement is beg sold to the hight rporate bidr, and that has bee so clive that may rip s once-radil roots San Francis prepar for the annual Gay Pri Para and Celebratn on Saturday and Sunday--an event that is expected to draw a ln people to downtown--many liberal gay activists have begun beltlg some of their fellow entrants: gay power pany executiv who rake nsumers over the als, gay landlords who evict hard-workg tenants, gay ps who still harass cross-drsers.

GAY PRI

Corporate participatn has risen dramatilly, too -- Budweiser Light is a primary evolutn has been dramatic enough to provoke 500 activists recently to block off the Castro district--the center of the Bay Area’s gay muny--to dole out “Gay Shame Awards” to people they see as “wners” clud Mary Cheney, a lbian who tirelsly mpaigned for her father, now-Vice Print Dick Cheney, after he piled what crics lled a vic anti-gay rerd as a ngrsman.

Mary Cheney also worked as the official liaison between Coors and the gay muny, even as the pany’s liquor profs were beg funneled to nservative , such as a bter mpaign agast same-sex marriage.

13 BIGGT GAY PRI PARAS THE WORLD

)Another “award” was given to a gay-owned, Bay Area real tate velopment pany that is alleged to have advised s clients on the bt methods to evict tenants--thereby makg possible higher profs when apartment buildgs are sold. Among other activi, the group is planng to distribute small bags to para watchers--”so they n vom out their gay pri, ” said Matt Bernste Symore, a San Francis rint who go by the name “Mattilda” and is part of the “Gay Shame” began as an amg and lighthearted mpaign to needle anizers of the para has forced the gay muny to addrs very real qutns. We’ve achieved an acceptance that, 30 years ago, I thought I would never see, ” said Tommi Avilli Mec, who was an early member of the Gay Liberatn Front while a stunt South Philalphia and now is an activist for gay rights and tenants’ rights San Francis.

”Teddy Whergton, executive director of the San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr Pri Celebratn Commtee Inc., the primary anizg mtee behd the para, said the Bay Area is full of gay activist groups, he said, all lobby for their particular --polics, AIDS advocy, health re and many more. What some view as a softeng of the celebratn’s edge is merely a reflectn of how mastream the gay muny has bee the San Francis area--and how diverse is, he said. ”*Dissent CommonThe gay muny has long experienced a certa amount of ternal, the event that many nsir the talyst of the gay rights movement--the “Stonewall” rts New York--began bee of ternal the summer of 1969, police raid the Stonewall Inn, a club Greenwich Village wh a largely gay clientele.

Many wanted to rpond what was nsired the mon way at the time, wh solemn march and the lightg of a more aggrsive factn of gay people rpond wh monstratns and rts, mandg job protectn and an end to police abe and anti-gay laws. That helped ph the gay rights mpaign onto the natnal San Francis crics, however, believe that kd of ternal dissent is different om allowg gay Catholics, for example, to march a gay pri para--even when the hierarchy of the Catholic Church believ homosexualy is a biblil same holds te, they believe, for rporatns wh polici that are not nsired progrsive, or lol officials who have not fought for the rights of all gay people. ”Calv Gipson, the vice print of the para and celebratn’s board of directors, said he believ that the bate is a healthy remr of an unrlyg dilemma that will always dog gay pri celebratns: “Is a prott and a ll to actn?

THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG

”*Siar ConcernsIf hard-lers San Francis have problems wh the playful, welg nature of the gay pri celebratn there, they would certaly et over Los Angel-area paras, said a Wt Hollywood cy uncilman, Steve Mart, a gay activist for the last 20 years Southern California. Perdilly, siar ncerns are raised the Los Angel area, he example, some have sought to troduce more liberal polics to the celebratn, and others have urged para anizers to better police s rporate sponsors--to ensure, for example, that sponsorg pani offer domtic partner benefs to gay the realy is that Los Angel is a ls polil, socially nsc place than San Francis--sometim to a disappotg extent, said Mart, who said he believ that para watchers Southern California uld certaly stand a ltle more polics wh their play. Gay Pri, also lled LGBT Pri or LGBTQ Pri, byname Pri, annual celebratn, ually June the Uned Stat and sometim at other tim other untri, of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) inty.

THE HYPERTROPHY OF GAY PRI

Gay Pri memorat the Stonewall rts, which began the early hours of June 28, 1969, after police raid the Stonewall Inn bar New York Cy’s Greenwich Village neighbourhood. Gay Pri typilly volv a seri of events and is often pped by a para volvg marchers and lourful floats om the LGBTQ muny and s the Stonewall rts, LGBTQ dividuals had generally not broadst their sexual orientatn or inty, but the event galvanized the gay muny and sparked greater polil activism (see gay rights movement).

In 1970, on the first anniversary of the rts, several hundred monstrators marched along Greenwich Village’s Christopher Street, which ns past the Stonewall, what many nsir the first Gay Pri march (though other memoratns were also held that year). Early Gay Pri events (often lled Freedom Day or Gay Liberatn Day) were often sparsely attend and enuntered protts, particularly bee of the outlandish stum that some marchers wore.

As acceptance of the LGBTQ muny creased among the straight muny, policians sympathetic to the views of the LGBTQ muny and gay-iendly bs and rporatns began participatg the march. The total number of people participatg—both gay and straight—mhroomed, and Pri events were held many part of the globe, cludg ci where they sometim enuntered stiff ristance (e. As thoands gather New York, San Francis and dozens of other ci around the world to celebrate Gay Pri this summer, a small but growg number of activists are sayg the gay muny should take no pri the events themselv.

What began four years ago as a small prott gatherg Brooklyn has grown to bee an unniable — if not exactly ordated — backlash agast the growg prence, and importance, of rporate sponsors at Gay Pri events.

Held late June every year, New York’s pri march memorat the 1969 Stonewall rts, three nights of vlent street protts durg which hundreds of gay and lbian New Yorkers mand an end to s of police harassment. In 1998, objectg to the creased promence of rporate sponsors and the dimished profile of polil activism at the New York event, a group of gay rights activists cid to create a fom for their tratns. The group staged Gay Shame, held on the same weekend as the pri events and billed as an alternative venue for those who felt alienated by the larger celebratn.

“It was a lot of people who are all activists who do work on a variety of issu that we felt weren’t addrsed by the mastream gay pri celebratn, ” says Dean Spa, a poverty lawyer who -anized the 1998 event.

Anhser-Bch ntributed $81, 000 to the San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgenr Pri Celebratn mtee and was the largt ntributor to New York Herage of Pri.

“That was an spiratn to the extent that the pri para seemed like a good … venue to beg a dialogue about nsumerism wh queer muni and gay muni, ” Hannssmann says.