‘We say gay’: Florida’s largt Pri para draws hundreds of thoands

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

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. 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.

‘WE SAY GAY’: FLORIDA’S LARGT PRI PARA DRAWS HUNDREDS OF THOANDS

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. Some may even have been enuraged by seeg a gay-themed T-shirt at Target, or a drag queen a yogurt mercial.

13 BIGGT GAY PRI PARAS THE WORLD

“Pri” events started a few s ago as an activist effort to ph back agast the stigma attached to homosexualy.

Last weekend, social media abound wh vios of a Pri event at a gay bar Dallas lled Drag the Kids to Pri. Send, Pri now seems ls about gay and lbian cln and more about abolishg the difference between mal and femal, and between adults and children.

On Twter, Storm Robson observed: “As a gay man, I n’t unrstand why a parent would take their child to a drag queen story hour. This annual ftival of naked men and naked polil manovrg is credibly dispirg to any lbian or gay man who don’t believe the unrpng valu—if you n ll them valu at all.