Pioneer gay activist Frank Kameny says in this week's Washington Blade that DC's "Capital Pride" event should be called "Gay Pride." How proud can you be if you can't say what it is you're taking pride in?
See how closely you have to read this Washington Post story to realize the weekend has to do with gay people. This is, to a large extent, fallout from the activists' insistence that "gay" excludes and so either the cumbersome and confusing LGBT must be deployed, or no signifier used at all.
9 Comments for “Pride Nomenclature”
posted by ETJB on
Yeah, if you do not know four letters in the American alphabet I bet that you would find ‘LGBT’ to be pretty bewildering…
posted by Mason on
Could people be a little more nit-picky, please? Like there’s not already enough bitchy infighting about Pride events.
Do you really think anyone in this world today doesn’t know what a pride parade is about? Does it also confuse you when we talk about the “Civil Rights Era”? Do you think we’re talking about the struggle to secure the right to keep and bear arms? Or perhaps “Capital Pride” is confusing because it doesn’t specify which capital. Richmond? Ottawa? Beijing? Oh no, I don’t know where to go!
Just slap a rainbow sticker on your bum and go out and have a good time, Frank.
posted by Paul on
Actually, there are a whole lot of people out there who have no idea what LGBT stands for, and they have never heard of a pride parade or “Gay Pride” for that matter. Yes, it’s important to say what exactly it is about. It’s exclusive? Of course it is. We’ve been excluded from everything else in this country. Why not have something that is “ours” and be proud enough to say so?
posted by Jordan on
As a board member for Little Rock Capital Pride, I will say that this was a big issue for us in the past two years. Originally, we were the “Little Rock Gay Pride” group. Then everyone started complaining about how that was not inclusive. After ’06 pride, we changed to “Little Rock Capital Pride.” I agree that there’s a question of whether or not people who are not familiar with our organization really realize that it’s a GLBT event. But trying to fit “GLBTQ” into a name is cumbersome and tiring. Doesn’t seem a good way to solve this issue, though — if you just put “Gay” in there, then everyone else feels left out. Put GL in there and you’re leaving out the Bi/Trans crowd.
posted by Brian Miller on
In addition, many of the people who complain about being “left out” of the nomenclature are quick to call for the exclusion of other people who aren’t like them — even when their keyword includes “diversity.”
For instance, waaay back in 2000, the primary opposition to the ill-fated Millenium March on Washington was a group of tired leftists who were enraged that the leather, “blood sports” and “water sports” communities were “underrepresented.” Or so they claimed. After a bit of poking around, they dropped the “underrepresentation” card and decided that the march was REALLY bad because it involved religious gays, was also going to cater to queer families, and that too many “capitalists” were involved.
They were especially enraged that, unlike prior national queer marches in Washington, the platform for the march wasn’t filled with dozens of pages of left-wing boilerplate about “universal health care,” “unity with the persecuted Palestinian people,” and various other causes that have zero relevance to LGBTQ equality.
When they couldn’t get their platform — and only their platform — approved, the angry left got even angrier. And when they saw that they couldn’t force the planners of the committee to exclude people they didn’t like and also hand over a monopoly on control to the angry left, they decided to derail the event.
Unfortunately, they were partially successful. The march was a disaster in terms of planning, fewer people attended, and the “Ad Hoc Committee” (the far-left anti-march group) publicized the problems (and often exaggerated them to get attention for their own angry cause). As a result, the political animals in Washington took this as a sign that the LGBT community was divided and moved in for the kill.
HRC’s monopoly over access to Washington politicians was secured at that point, and the rest of the movement was forced into exile — an exile it’s lived in to this day — as a result of the AHC’s nuttiness.
Let it never be said that many acolytes of “diversity” don’t actually hate the idea with a passion.
posted by Herb Spencer on
I agree with the sentiments of the British actor – Quentin Crisp? – who said he wasn’t especially “proud” of being gay, but was proud that he wasn’t ashamed of being gay. There’s a big difference between the two, and had we focused on publicizing the latter instead of preaching the former, perhaps all our heads would be held a bit higher.
posted by ETJB on
The 2000 event was simply poor planned from the get-go. The center-left Human Rights Campaign simply didn’t care about what other activists (on the left and right) wanted and then got surprised when their lack of concern caused problems.
The LGBT Pride in Twin Cities, Minnesota manages to avoid much of these problems.
Every one I have attended, they include LGBT and the festival booths include LGBT people of color, businessmen and women, families, GOPers, Libertarians, church groups, etc.
The MN PFLAG and Rainbow Families get together for a large potluck in one side of th park.
Yet, you can easily find more adult entertainment with widely distributed maps, public transit, etc.
posted by Lori Heine on
Jordan is right. And a lot of the same sort of folks who complain that “gay” is not an “inclusive” enough word are probably the same ones now complaining because the word “gay” itself is not being included.
How about “The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name” Festival? The “Proud of Not Being Ashamed” Festival sounds pretty good, too.
posted by Murchu on
How about calling “DC Gay Pride” or “DC Capital Pride” so GLBT people around the world wanting to attend different Gay Prides at least know where in the USA it is taking place. Who cares if Gay is part of the title so long as the exact city name identifies just where it is taking place say in a long on-line list of world-wide gay pride events.