Oops! It's Capital Pride Weekend . . .

I think a better question is were they ever really "central" and/or "important" to the "community"? I could be being narrow minded but I don't recall any Pride Event having any meaningful impact on the gay "community".

 

I think they did have an impact...many years ago. Now, not so much really. There are too many ways to communicate and overall 'the gheys' have ways of communicating and having power that they did not before.

I have not gone to one in years and I doubt I go to this one. Will be either too hot or raining like hell, too crowded, lines for bathrooms, obnoxious people and bitchy queens everywhere. People littering like hell(last year was terrible) people taking sh$t for granted, too much corporate crap, ugly bad-bodied women with their sagging boobs out, the worst looking guys naked or near naked, drunks and drug addled people around, and lots of attitude from many of these homos. Plus everyone glued to their damn phones like zombies.

Not that I have a bad attitude about them now or anything lol.

 

Yeah, when I talk to older gays it sounds like it was actually more PRIDE less EVENT back in the 70s/80s (at least in Chicago). It's like the whole MLK Day thing. As these phony ass nikkas that wouldn't stand by King in 1967/68 after he came out against Johnson and Vietnam, and wrote his last book, Chaos or Community, act like they were always on the team every January when the Right Reverend Gladhand talks about what a messiah King was over the celebrity chitlin breakfast.

As I've mentioned before, after I came out and started exploring the gay world, the parades just struck me as a gay minstrel show. I did get some unintended laughs at the one last year, though. As the corporate floats and twinks rolled by, float after float, there was cheers and shouting from the crowd/bystanders. Then a float came by that said something to the effect of "Proud Windy City Bears" (they can't call these guys here Chicago Bears for obvious IP reasons). A whole float of bare-shirted John Goodmans. The whole street went deathly silent. After the bear float went by, some pretty young things were dancing in speedos on the next float and the crowd sounds returned. Man, I never wanted to simultaneously cry (for their embarrassment) and laugh (for the almost Mel Brooks like effect) so hard at the same time.

The No Fats/No Fems force be strong, even among the so-called "allies"....

 

I have seen that they LOVE the fems. The drag queens and the scantily clad girly-boys always get a roar of approval. I would much rather have shirtless bears than nearly naked twinks looking(and acting) like 12 year old spoiled white girls, and certainly more than those damn angry feminists in full bitchface mode with no shirts on with boobs flailing and looking more like John Goodman than John Goodman himself. *barfs*

* I don't know if they have the bare breasted bulky beast brigades in Chicago, but here it is completely legal for women to walk the streets of the city topless(although few do). When the ruling first came out years ago some activists did it....but I have not heard or seen anything about it in years, except for the damn Pride things.

I have not been to one in over a decade though. I was on a float of a gay dive bar(one that still exists!) throwing out candy and waving a huge rainblow flag one year-much fun!-and much different from the 80's when there were more protesters than anything and they had to guard the route. It was a very different vibe and you could easily hear and see the hatefilled religious protesters and their large DIE F.A.G.S and AIDS IS GOD'S JUSTICE! signs. At times I would feel like they could just spill into the street and attack us, they were that numerous and that rabid at times.

 

No bare breasts; remember, Chicago may be Democratic but its also super Catholic. So they may support pride politically, but, being Catholic they'd rather have the "marys" showing flesh than the Mother Marys (lol)...

 

"I can see ya' dirty pillahs" LOL!!