San Diego Gay PRIDE was held this weekend, while I was in town. Nice of them to coordinate with my schedule, huh? What I truly love about being part of the Gay Community is that it is so inclusive of all types…check back in a couple of days on the pictures pages to see what I mean. You can be a Leather Daddy, a Bear, a Bull Dyke, a Lipstick Lesbian, be mommies with babies, a Baby Dyke, a Transman or woman, you can look preppie or butch, dance like it’s 1999 in little teeny weeny (no pun intended) briefs or dress in white silk panties that oddly enough, resemble diapers—people are going to stare but no one is going to tell you you are wrong. You may still wear a mullet or emulate the L Word Lesbians, or you could even be that rare Gay Man who makes poor fashion choices, and no one is going to demand the return of your Queer Card. Sure, there are cliques and biases, prejudice and narrow mindedness in every community—but the one thing we all share is we are one true Community of Family. It’s the same everywhere I’ve been for PRIDE—Omaha, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, San Antonio, Chicago, San Francisco, and so on—we are family. Ironically, I’m a little worried that somehow that’s going to get lost as we assimilate and lose our uniqueness through the highly desired “acceptance” by the straight world—maybe it will take a little away from that understanding and comfort that comes from knowing we share some thread of the same back story in the path we’ve taken—we all have a coming out story, we’ve all had fears of being rejected by our families, employers, or landlords, or feared being bashed, and we all watch as people who have no clue what it means to be Gay make decisions that affect our lives. So, all of my fellow queers—I hope you revel in your family this day, this month, this year!
We were 'here, queer and weren't gonna take it anymore' and all that.
~ Paul Barwick
Published on: Jul 30, 2006
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