Am I Bitter?

Help me decide...

So it's Pride weekend in Vancouver... THIS popped up in the newsfeed on my facebook. Since I'm pretty sure Nathan isn't reading my blog, I'm sharing...

Funny? Absolutely!... Lol. Who wouldn't stop to watch a tranny barfing. That''s pure entertainment!! But something to be proud of? Definately no!

Pride weekend has become a no holds barred party mess-fest. The organizers should change the slogan to match the Vegas catch phrase. "What happens at pride, stays at pride" would be most appropriate. The last thing the majority of people who are coming here for the weekend intend on doing is anything that they should be proud of.

To each his own. However, this is a themed event meant to raise awareness of homosexual rights. I am embarassed to be counted among the same culture as what this weekend has come to celebrate. I AM proud to be gay. I am not proud of, and nor am I, partying all night, using drugs, peuking, and passing out in the street barely clothed.

It has become a messy, self-indulgent, ego-fest.

There are civil and respectable things happening this weekend; events meant to raise awareness of positive gay culture, but they are overshadowed by the above.

I was thinking maybe I was just bitter. I came up with the analogy of the 'Critical Mass' bike ride; a group of eco-anarchic bike riders who clog up the downtown core and bring traffic to a stand still one friday rush hour each month. Many cyclists do not count themselves among these protestors because they don't like the image it portrays, and they don't feel it is positively promoting their cause. I, however, when reading an article about this, had the opinion that 'critical mass' still had value because it is still raising awareness about a much suppressed subject. And 'bad press is better then no press'... Right?

I changed my mind when I was on my way to work yesterday and saw that Urban Barn was having a "Well Hung" sale for Pride weekend. For me, it has to do with the way the word GAY is perceived by the public. We are giving the wrong impression and, I believe, doing more harm to our cause then good. I'm willing to bet it never crossed the mind of the Urban Barn marketing department employee who came up with the idea for this sale that using that slogan in conjunction with Pride weekend to sell their products is promoting a stereotype and is offensive.

It is evident that we are promoting an idea of GAY that causes a crude sexual euphamism to come to mind when the word is brought up. This is not what we want. This is not what I want.

Being accepted is not the same as being respected.