"Queer."
All the word really means is "different." Where is it written in stone that all the people who are, in one way or another, "different" from an arbitrarily defined "mainstream" have to themselves be all alike?
Current case in point: The highly public fiasco over the 2007 LGBT Pride festivities.
The only thing we know as of press time: There will be a parade. There might even be two. There may also be a rally or festival, but it probably won't be at Seattle Center.
Beyond that, it's all in flux.
I say this is a good thing, and can only be constructive for the community/communities involved.
Aside from practicing and celebrating sexualities that aren't vanilla nuclear-family hetero, and thus needing to fight back against the resulting prejudices and discriminations, the assorted "queer" tribes and sub-tribes don't have a whole lot in common. Even within any one such tribe, there are vast differences in attitudes, aesthetics and lifestyles. (E.g. "butch" and "femme" lesbians, for just an obvious example.)
So have two parades. At least.
There'll be the Seattle Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Community Center's event on Capitol Hill, which will likely emphasize community and political organizing, social services and prosocial messages.
Meanwhile, the fiscally-troubled Seattle Out and Proud (SOaP) is trying to get its act back together and stage another flashy downtown parade, which (if like last year's) will emphasize the showier, celebratory aspects of empowerment and out-ness.
DIVERSE POSSIBILITIES
Here's another way to look at the prospect of rival pride parades: Think of it not as a "schism" dividing an otherwise unified community but as a competition, a friendly rivalry.
The winner won't necessarily be the biggest or the boldest parade, but the one that gets enough donations, sponsorships, volunteers and community support to thrive in future years.
By these rules, both groups could "win." Perhaps both will.
In one corner (or up one street), there's SOaP, successor to the original Seattle Pride Foundation, dating back to the first local gay pride parades in the 1970s. It's got the experience, it's got the contacts, it's got the long-term relationships with sponsors and city government. It's got the drive to continue last year's move from Capitol Hill to downtown, and to somehow retire its debts from the '06 festival.
But, claim some critics, it's also got entropy.
These critics allege that SOaP has devolved into a top-down clique, run by a handful of people who've become increasingly out of touch with the larger LGBT community. (Of course, this line of criticism implies that there is one singular "larger LGBT community," or that there at least ought to be.)
In the opposite corner, the LGBT Community Center, the relatively new organization planning to march up the old street (Broadway).
Originally founded to provide a physical space for community programs and to fund housing for low-income gay seniors, the center has since expanded the range of what it does, and its leaders would like to expand it still further. In 2006, the year SOaP moved off the Hill, the LGBT Center folks announced they would organize their own event, "QueerFest," which took place at Volunteer Park, albeit on a much smaller scale than previous Prides. Thisyear, they say they're ready to go ahead with it again, including the traditional Broadway parade and Volunteer Park rally.
Dan Savage, editor of The Stranger and a past critic of the Seattle Pride events (he'd called for the parade to be moved downtown back in the early 1990s), has written snarkily about the LGBT Center and its board as of late. He's essentially called them ambitious empire builders who simply want to expand their own organization at the expense of SOaP's long-standing services.
But that implies there's only room in this town for one gay parade or for one entity of gay parade organizers. It also implies that the sole job of gay parade organizing should be left to the group whose current fiscal act is less together.
I say the more diversity the better. Let both parades happen, at least for this year. Let there be more Dykes on Bikes, more Queers with Corgis, more leather, more spandex, more politicians, more activists, more fabulosity.
After all, nothing succeeds like excess.
Clark Humphrey's column appears in the first issue of each month. His long-running Web site on popular culture is www.miscmedia.com. Reach him at editor@capitol hilltimes.com.
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