It was St. Petersburg’s first LGBTQ Pri march sce the onslght of the Covid-19 panmic, and jt three months after Florida’s ernor signed what crics ll the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Contents:
- THIS PRI MONTH, FELLOW GAYS, KEEP YOUR KKS AT HOME — AND AWAY OM KIDS
- ‘WE SAY GAY’: FLORIDA’S LARGT PRI PARA DRAWS HUNDREDS OF THOANDS
- 13 BIGGT GAY PRI PARAS THE WORLD
THIS PRI MONTH, FELLOW GAYS, KEEP YOUR KKS AT HOME — AND AWAY OM KIDS
* sexualizing kids in gay pride parades *
The middle-aged, Whe men who I grew up wh said they were “fe” wh gay people as long as they wouldn’t be subjected to PDA — as long as all signs of queer love uld be outwardly erased. And as a parent, I might want to take my kids to Pri, bee they might be lbian, gay, bi, trans, queer or two-spir. After the June 1969 raid of New York gay bar the Stonewall Inn, a seri of uprisgs began, and sparked the gay liberatn movement.
But as a member of the gay muny, I thk we ought to have a reckong over why kk is nflated wh LGBT pri at all.
‘WE SAY GAY’: FLORIDA’S LARGT PRI PARA DRAWS HUNDREDS OF THOANDS
So to nflate beg gay wh preferenc and extracurricular sexual activi people choose to engage is to do our own inti and legimacy a tremendo disservice. The succsful effort to sell the public on gay marriage, the sgle biggt acplishment of the gay-rights movement, was fundamentally rooted bourgeois norms, fay valu and, ankly, normalcy.
13 BIGGT GAY PRI PARAS THE WORLD
So, too, this unfortunate trend plays to old homophobic prejudic and unfair stereotyp some people still subscribe to. There’s a long and dark history of bigots suggtg gay people are out to get kids or more likely to sexually abe mors, spe many studi and expert nsens showg such a rrelatn do not exist. But when a select few gay people do openly engage simulated sex acts ont of children — somethg all normal, everyday gay people would nounce — and go viral, plays to the unfair stereotyp and sets back the progrs we’ve ma, even though ’s not reprentative.
Some people have been sharg imag of queer ins and homophob alike wearg exprsns of disapproval—RuPl owng on the phone, Ltle Edie rantg Grey Garns, Aunt Lydia swlg The Handmaid’s Tale. Gay sire, the exprsn of trans and fluid inti, and asexualy each suggts different ias of what a “productive” life looks like. Moreover, homophobia roots self a sense of revulsn—a notn that certa kds of sex and bodi are weird, unnatural, and wrong.
Some people are simply sayg “yuck” to people wearg the same amount of cloth you’d expect to see at any beach—and “yuck, ” of urse, is exactly how homophob react to gay Cisg the age of nsentStep back, though, and the objectns bee almost reassurg.