Hey, there! Log in / Register
Pride takes center stage in Boston
By adamg on Sat, 06/09/2018 - 4:54pm
Thousands marched in the annual Pride parade through the Back Bay, the South End and downtown today as even more people lined the parade route.
Some photos:
Mermaid Man and Barnicle Boy arrive to fight evil:
Although most of the marchers represented corporations or schools or just groups having fun, there were reminders of the politics beyond the parade, including a November ballot question that would strip rights away from transgender people if a majority votes no on it:
Several people carried posters of transgender murder victims:
More than 100 mayors, in town for a national conference, marched in the parade with our own Marty Walsh - including James Hoveland, mayor of Edina, MN:
Attorney General Maura Healey walked/ran through the parade wearing sneakers that had rainbow-colored soles.
Little known fact: Massachusetts actually has two senators. Both marched in the parade.
RoadTrip New England spotted Parkland survivor David Hogg, who was marching with US Rep. Joe Kennedy:
Israelis:
Patsy Cline fans:
RoadTrip New England captured the scene on Beacon Street, in front of the State House, where a crash between a pedestrian and a motorcycle held up the parade:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Please note...
Please note https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Shame
So I take it ...
You gave the parade a miss?
Well, hey
He very tactfully dropped in a link without a rant - and you cannot say that it was not on topic. We can all do to check out some alternative thought on these matters from time to time.
Alternative Thought
I agree. When you think the whole thing started as an "alternative" in the first place, so many years ago before going so very mainstream. As an older LGBTQIA man I recall an early "march" (as it was called then) in the 70s when people marched with paper bags on their heads because they didn't dare show their faces, holding signs stating their occupations. Signs such as "elementary school teacher" (you could be fired from that job for being gay back then) and "firefighter". Once you've seen something as powerful as that, today's festivities can seem like so much frivolous self congratulation. The soul of it all is long gone.
BBQ?
I know what LGBT stands for, what about the rest of the alphabet soup?
LGBTQIA
LGBTQIA
Queer/Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual. In Colorado and other western states, you often also get a 2, for the Native American two-spirit people.
Q=queer, and less commonly,
Q=queer, and less commonly, questioning [your sexual orientation/gender identity]
I=intersex
A=asexual
We're a group of people who understand how it feels to be inately different from majority heterosexuality. And the acronym reflects that.
Please don't call me queer
Queer is also a slur.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer
I don't call anyone queer who
I don't call anyone queer who doesn't identify themselves using that term. But I do prefer using the term "queer community" myself, since it's more inclusive and less awkward than saying LGBTQIA, sometimes.
The changing meaning of "queer"
"Queer" hasn't been a slur since the 90s. It was "reclaimed" by whomever it is that makes it their business to reclaim such things, and an entire generation has grown up seemingly never knowing that it was once something other than it is now. Colleges offer "queer studies" courses, TV shows, newspaper articles and the like blithely refer to "queer youth", etc. As an older gay man I unpleasantly remember when it was a negative term, but I also can't shake the feeling that it's new usage has an air of pretentiousness about it.
Use as a slur is pretty recent, and likely transitory
'Queer' is at least 500 years old, as an english/scottish word. Even older if one goes back to its germanic roots. Only in the roaring 20s was it given an additional pejorative meaning relating to homosexuality.
While I certainly wouldn't use the term to refer to someone who did not want me to, I suspect that given the ongoing changes in attitudes about gender, and the expanding scope of its use, for nearly everyone the word will cease to hold derogatory connotations relatively soon.
It was not coined as a slur, and it will go back to not being a slur.
Even then it wasn't always a
Even then it wasn't always a slur.
1943: "If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey,
Sing 'Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy.' "
Semantics
If we truly are inclusive it should be LGBT shame, not Gay Shame.
Funny how only one element takes the hit when we criticize.
Narcissism
LGBT narcissism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism
Did you read the article?
This is a discussion well beyond the scope of uhub (which is really not the right place for it), but 1)you might want to read the article and note the dates, and 2)surely you can't be unaware that the event is commonly abbreviated to "Gay Pride" (even more so at the time of Gay Shame).
See also...
Please see also http://www.umich.edu/~lgqri/gayshame.html
Or http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo5877479.html
Gay pride in all its corporate glory
is still very political. There are many people who want GLBT to return to disappear. Pullling in corporate America is the best way to defeat the bigots. The Supreme Court can play semantics games all they want. But they fail against the might of corporate America.
In this instance corporate America defeats bigots.
The greater economic issues that Smith and Marx identified will not be changed merely by Gay people. Those issues involve human psychology at both personal and group levels. Religions are supposed to address those issues. But ever since Constantine religion and state have been bosom buddies. If religions ever stop being just another club that seeks to maintain itself then perhaps we will create a society based on a better economic system then the one which exists.
You lost me with the atheist nonesense
"If religions ever stop being just another club that seeks to maintain itself then perhaps we will create a society based on a better economic system then the one which exists."
That's an inaccurate portrayal of religion. Many Christian denominations accept gays, even if they are not the loudest voices in Christianity.
"The greater economic issues that Smith and Marx identified will not be changed merely by Gay people. Those issues involve human psychology at both personal and group levels"
Religious groups are in the trenches helping the poor. I don't know how you come up with this characterization.
What atheism?
I didn't mention atheism.
I was responding to the idea of Gay Shame in Theszak's link. I see that idea of "Gay shame" to be a foolish and psychologically atavistic rejection of what GLBT have fought to claim for decades and even centuries (albeit in far more subtle and usually lonely ways). While I miss the excitement of marches, or shouting chants such as "Anita, you liar, we'll set your hair on fire," I am grateful that I can walk hand in hand with a person that I love and not fear sticks and rocks thrown at me at least in Boston.
Referencing Smith and Marx was a direct response to the idea that Gay Shame can correct the evil aspects of both capitalism and religion.
I don't dispute that religious groups do good. But religious belief has also been used by demagogues and the powerful to destroy, to maintain evil, to wage wars and to commit genocide. Religious leaders of ante-bellum southern states used their pulpits to praise slavery while spreading anti-northern propaganda that propelled the Civil War.
My reference to religious groups in the context of making a better society, by changing the structures of power that cause evil (heard of a fellow named Trump?), is to note that religions are powerful. Yet many religions in this nation are clubs which are more concerned about maintaining the status quo instead of making our nation better. They talk the talk of love and compassion. But for many that love and compassion is left inside the church instead of being applied to the world they live in.
Again I do not attack the good that is done, but attack the evil which is done in the name of good.
Are you quite young?
Unfortunately, for quite a few, their "acceptance" is only partial or conditional, ranging from "you can be gay but don't, y'know, do gay things" to "you can be gay but no marriage for you" to "you can be gay but we don't want you in the ministry" to "you can be gay but we really want you to get over that and we'll help you pray the gay away". Pretty good list here.
tl;dr: Christians have a lot of walking the walk to do in this area before they should be uttering one word of talk.
Yeah, no
No, it doesn't. Corporate America identifies a market and attempts to coopt a movement - largely successfully. Corporate America has no interest in defeating bigots, no will for the job, and no meaningful actions in that direction.
Explain the fishead with cash
Explain the fishead with cash in xir hand.
It isn't drinking cappuccino in Italian restaurants
With Asian women.
Actually, I suspect that it is a Rainbow trout.
The Rainbow Fish
I thought I recognized the fish from the children's book The Rainbow Fish. "The book is best known for its morals about the value of being an individual and for the distinctive shiny foil scales of Rainbow Fish." (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Fish)
Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy FTW
Made my day. Well done, gents.
David Hogg is a true hero.
I was moved to tears to see Mr. Hogg. A young man who chose he would not tolerate the lies that the NRA and its cabal tell us everyday. I can see why he threatens gun worshippers. He actually seemed shy and uncomfortable but shook hands with anyone wanting to.
David challenged the incarnation of the devil today, the NRA. David, like David of the Bible, challenged the ruthless and gigantic Goliath. Goliath hasn't fallen yet. But he blinked.
While I was excited to see Liz, seeing David reminded me of what is the best of us.
David: Thank you for coming to Boston.
Hopefully he toured some local colleges while in town
...seriously. it'd be cool if he went to college in this area.
When the story was in the news about him being denied admission to the school(s) he'd applied to out West, I immediately thought he should come to a Boston area college instead. He'd do well in this part of the country, where his views are more accepted.
But then again, maybe he'd be best suited to study in a part of the country where his kind of voice is needed, more so than here. Such as a University in the South or some parts of the West.
Best of luck to him wherever he ends up as a student.
Whether one agrees with him or not, it's good to see someone of his age taking an active role in these issues rather than staying inside and playing Fortnight 24/7.
You are entitled to your opinion.
"David challenged the incarnation of the devil today, the NRA."
Things aren't so bad around here in this day and age (I guess...not much in the way of personal experience) but there are places where things aren't so good for gays.
Hence the existence of the Pink Pistols. You might want to check them out for your own edification. BTW, they started in Massachusetts.
"According to spokesperson Gwen Patton, "We don't want people to hurt us, we want people to run away from us, and the best way we have found to do that is to be armed."[1] Patton has also stated that, "the Pink Pistols tend to get a better response from firearms supporters than from homosexuals".[5]"
I wonder how they feel about the NRA.
Motto, "Pick on someone your own caliber."
I could make a 'triggered' joke here but that would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
Bullets are not opinions
Bullets kill. David Hogg was able to cut through the bullcrap of groups such as the NRA that tries to create smokescreens around guns.
The NRA reminds me of cigarette companies. Cigarette company executives knew cigarettes are cancer sticks. They also realize that there was ZERO need for cigarettes. So they created all sorts of smokescreens (pun intended) to deflect attention from the fact that cigarettes are slow acting poison.
The NRA and its affiliated minions do the same.
When the current leadership of the NRA agrees to rational discussions about firearms then I won't call them Satan's soldiers. But we know that's not happening any time soon.
By the way, I remember when just walking down the street could easily result in being bashed by an anti-Gay bigot. I know that the same gay bashers, if they had a gun, would not hesitate to kill a person.
What I don't deny however is the if Matthew Shepard had a gun maybe he would not have been tortured and crucified in 1998. No he wouldn't. He was tricked into getting into a car with his murderers. Matthew would not have had the opportunity defend himself once his murderers showed their true intention to torture and kill him.
The only way to find out is with an experiment. Provide most people with guns. If gun violence increases then it's probably a bad idea. If it decreases then maybe we've learned something.
But I imagine that the people hurt from a rise in gun violence will not be very happy to be part of that experiment. The dead won't mind; they'll be dead.
Why don't you ask them?
It's been decades since I've heard an actual LGBT person use the word "homosexuals".
Why don't you ask them if you really want to know? Or spent ten seconds googling? Is it perhaps because you might find something unfortunate like "A large number of our members don’t like the NRA...A lot of them remember when members of the NRA had things to say about gay community"?
The NRA is all about the money (and the money laundering). It isn't about protecting gay folks. Pink Pistols may be ok with them, that's their business, but don't, DO NOT equate a stance in favor of owning firearms for personal protection with support for the NRA.
I shook his hand
And looked him right in the eye and said "Dude, you're my hero" (and I meant it probably more than anything I've ever said to anyone), he said to me "and you're mine". It was a very moving few seconds. I feel very hopeful for the future of our society because of people like him. A sad reminder of how pathetic some of those he's up against: he was trailed by two bodyguards.
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Kevin McCrea, who drove a flatbed with them, managed to get in a photo:
Stevil took a bunch of photos, too:
The Lady in Green....
Was Sister Rita Lipps who is deaf and who joined the Boston Sisters from Texas to March in the parade. Thank you Rita!
That wasn't Boston Pride
I thought it was Amsterdam Pride judging by all the open pot smoking.
I went to Amsterdam Pride
I went to Amsterdam Pride years ago and didn't see any pot smoking.
Hm,
I thought the same thing, but because of all of the drag queens in wooden shoes. I didn't smell any more pot smoke than usual.
Little known fact:
gonna need a citation for this
I marched in Maura Healey's
I marched in Maura Healey's contingent last year, and her running is no joke. She was in nonstop motion, running up and back along each side of the street, greeting the crowd that treated her like a rockstar. Whatever the distance of the parade route is, I bet she ran 3-4 times that distance.