tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/pride-parade-40289/articlesPride parade – The Conversation2022-02-21T19:07:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1718202022-02-21T19:07:23Z2022-02-21T19:07:23ZHomage, pilgrimage and protest: why Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade should go back to the streets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445553/original/file-20220210-15-1ovxj93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4533%2C3012&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/ AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1985, calls for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade to be cancelled in response to concerns about HIV/AIDS were successfully countered by the organisers. The parade is now recognised as an important way of creating awareness of safe-sex practices, reducing the social stigma of HIV/AIDS and being a living memorial to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14616680902827092">those who died from it</a>.</p>
<p>In 2020, like many other major events, the Mardi Gras parade became a victim of another virus: COVID-19. In consultation with public health experts, the parade <a href="https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/gay-and-lesbian-mardi-gras-will-return-to-sydney-cricket-ground-in-2022/206354">moved to the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2021 and will again take place there in 2022</a>. </p>
<p>This radical decision is a testament to the resilience and spirit of Mardi Gras that, despite calls for its cancellation at various points within its 43-year history, the show continues. </p>
<p>But at what cost? Taking it away from its homeland on Oxford street, and containing it within the boundaries of the SCG challenges its status as a protest, reducing its ability to disrupt. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 43rd annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade took place at the SCG in Sydney in 2021, due to COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/ AAP</span></span>
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<h2>A pilgrimage</h2>
<p>Since 1978, the parade has followed roughly the same route on Oxford Street in the heart of Sydney’s “Gaybourhood”. That first parade ended in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-04/nsw-police-apologise-to-mardi-gras-78ers/7219996">a brutal riot instigated by police</a>. By following the route of that first night, the parade pays homage to the brave people who created that first parade, now known as the 78ers. </p>
<p>For some, the parade acts as a form of pilgrimage and a place to express and affirm one’s sexual and/or gender orientation. It is a moment in time when a minority is publicly celebrated and when differences are embraced, albeit temporarily.</p>
<p>For others who may not be out, the parade provides a visual representation of what being LGBTIQ+ is. It helps break down barriers that prevent LGBTIQ+ people from living their authentic lives, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19407963.2022.2037623">displaying a community that will embrace them</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445567/original/file-20220210-19-1lg7gyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445567/original/file-20220210-19-1lg7gyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445567/original/file-20220210-19-1lg7gyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445567/original/file-20220210-19-1lg7gyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445567/original/file-20220210-19-1lg7gyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445567/original/file-20220210-19-1lg7gyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445567/original/file-20220210-19-1lg7gyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445567/original/file-20220210-19-1lg7gyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Mardi Gras parade pays homage to the brave people who created that first parade, now known as the 78ers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives</span></span>
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<p>The success of the parade has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02614367.2020.1831043">inspired similar ones in other regional communities around Australia </a>.</p>
<p>These public displays challenge mainstream expectations of sexuality and gender, drawing attention to the diversity of LGBTIQ+ communities. Oxford Street provides the parade and its exuberant participants with a connection to what is arguably Australia’s LGBTIQ+ imagined homeland – and the struggles and celebrations of past generations.</p>
<h2>The shift to the Cricket Ground</h2>
<p>It is not surprising the shift to the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2021 was not accepted by all LGBTIQ+ people. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/05/mardi-gras-protest-march-to-go-ahead-in-sydney-after-last-minute-covid-exemption-granted">Several hundred people marched down Oxford Street</a> following an exemption granted by the NSW Minister for Health. </p>
<p>Apart from honouring the 78ers, people marched to protest contemporary issues like the religious freedom discrimination bill and Black deaths in custody. They felt protest could not be effective within the walls of the SCG.</p>
<p>The importance of Oxford Street relates then not only to the origin of the parade but to the fact that it disrupts public space and, by doing so, garners public attention for important issues. </p>
<p>Indeed, a protest is only a protest if it disrupts the everyday routines of public life. The blocked roads and traffic diversions expose the public to the parade, regardless of whether they intend to participate. These disruptions help remind the public of the LGBTQIQ+ communities and their place in Australian society.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445562/original/file-20220210-23-9wmstl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445562/original/file-20220210-23-9wmstl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445562/original/file-20220210-23-9wmstl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445562/original/file-20220210-23-9wmstl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445562/original/file-20220210-23-9wmstl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445562/original/file-20220210-23-9wmstl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445562/original/file-20220210-23-9wmstl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445562/original/file-20220210-23-9wmstl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Mardi Gras parade has important functions as a public protest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ann Marie Calilhanna/ Mardi Gras</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The shift to the SCG changes the nature of the parade and its relationship with onlookers. It becomes a ticketed event, and those attending can no longer maintain the anonymity afforded on a crowded street. Ticketing limits access to the event to Mardi Gras members (who each receive two free tickets); those who can afford tickets; and those lucky to get one of a limited number of spots. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-on-the-sydney-mardi-gras-march-of-1978-54337">Friday essay: on the Sydney Mardi Gras march of 1978</a>
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<p>Lastly, the SCG, with its fencing and security, is spatially contained within boundaries that prevent the public gaze on the street, potentially consigning the politics of Pride away from the public sphere to within a private space. </p>
<p>The fact that the Mardi Gras Parade has been able to take place each year across its 43-year history, in the face of protests from some religious groups, ill-founded concerns about HIV transmission, horrible weather and now, COVID-19, is a show of defiance and strength. </p>
<p>However, shifting the parade from the street where it emerged, with such strong historical connections to the development of LGBTQI+ Pride does come with some costs. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen what happens in the future with <a href="https://sydneyworldpride.com/">World Pride 2023</a> set to be hosted in Sydney. </p>
<p>Will the parade come out of the stadium as planned? Will it still call people out of the bars and onto the streets? Or will it morph into an entertainment spectacle, sanitised and contained within the boundaries of the SCG?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rather than a sanitised spectacle at the SCG, the Mardis Gras Parade works best when disrupting everyday routines.Clifford Lewis, Senior lecturer, Charles Sturt UniversityKevin Markwell, Adjunct Professor, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1556162021-03-04T13:13:23Z2021-03-04T13:13:23ZQueer in the country: Why some LGBTQ Americans prefer rural life to urban ‘gayborhoods’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387533/original/file-20210303-22-1f2faby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C47%2C7951%2C5249&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not all gay people enjoy big cities, but pop culture has little to say about rural LGBTQ life.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dabney-tompkins-sits-in-bed-with-his-husband-alan-colley-on-news-photo/995068706?adppopup=true">Ruaridh Connellan / Barcroft Media via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pop portrayals of LGBTQ Americans tend to feature urban gay life, from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10350330.2018.1547490">Ru Paul’s “Drag Race”</a> and “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07393180600714505?casa_token=Ky2y1lqpipkAAAAA%3AZBKJ1sp2mQVotwy3ruNEXnMhJ36L07vHprcJ2CF2q1MxV6qmDg8PDxR8TA6RiHVbeILsAYroD0EE">Queer Eye</a>” and “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80241986">Pose</a>.” </p>
<p>But not all gay people live in cities. Demographers estimate that <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/file/lgbt-rural-executive-summary.pdf">15% to 20%</a> of the United States’ total LGBTQ population – between 2.9 million and 3.8 million people – live in rural areas.</p>
<p>These millions of understudied LGBTQ residents of rural America are the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eVwGqiQAAAAJ&hl=en">subject of my latest academic research project</a>. Since 2015 I have conducted interviews with 40 rural LGBTQ people and analyzed various survey data sets to understand the rural gay experience. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13634607211013280">My study</a> found that many LGBTQ people in rural areas view their sexual identity substantially differently from their urban counterparts – and question the merits of urban gay life.</p>
<h2>Easy come, easy go</h2>
<p>The standard narrative of rural gay life is that it’s tough for LGBTQ kids who flee their rural hometowns for iconic urban “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793609830/The-Gayborhood-From-Sexual-Liberation-to-Cosmopolitan-Spectacle">gayborhoods</a>” like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/us/gay-pride-lgbtq-gayborhood.html">Chicago’s Boystown</a> or <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098014555630">the Castro</a> in San Francisco – places where they can find love, feel “normal” and be surrounded by others like them. </p>
<p>But this rural exodus story is incomplete. Most research, mine included, suggests that many rural LGBTQ folks who once sought refuge in the big city <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/rural-lgbt#:%7E:text=The%20Movement%20Advancement%20Project%20released%20a%20new%20report,,less%20able%20to%20respond%20to%20its%20harmful%20effects">ultimately return home</a>.</p>
<p>To the extent that American pop culture portrays rural LGBTQ adult life, the focus is on their isolation – think “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388795/">Brokeback Mountain</a>” or “<a href="https://www.advocate.com/film/2016/10/07/reflecting-queer-cinemas-golden-age-gay-90s?pg=5">Thelma & Louise</a>.” The gay protagonists of these films are lonely, seldom able to express their sexual selves. </p>
<p>But my analysis of a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/06/13/a-survey-of-lgbt-americans/">2013 Pew Survey of LGBTQ Americans</a> – the latest available comprehensive national survey data on this population – showed that LGBTQ rural residents are actually more likely to be legally married than their urban counterparts – 24.8% compared with 18.6%. This aligns with what I’ve heard in interviews. The rural LGBTQ people I spoke with placed a high value on monogamy – on what many of them consider a “normal” life. </p>
<p>Those who returned home from urban gayborhoods also told me they found gay city living rarely delivered on its promises of companionship and inclusion. Many said they had experienced rejection while trying to date or develop a social circle. And they had missed the charm of small-town life. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three smiling LGBTQ Latinos ride along a city street in an open-top convertible with a rainbow flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Rural LGBTQ Americans are less likely to participate in iconic gay rights events like the Pride parade, interviews and survey data find.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/roberta-colindrez-and-chelsea-rendon-celebrity-grand-news-photo/1159420314?adppopup=true">Arun Nevader/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>No escape</h2>
<p>The rural LGBTQ people I interviewed seemed to place less importance on being gay than their urban communities had. Downplaying their sexual or gender identities, many emphasized other aspects of themselves, such as their involvement in music, sports, nature or games. </p>
<p>They rejected an urban gay culture that they felt was shallow and overly focused on gayness as the defining feature of life.</p>
<p>One married 35-year-old described his big-city life this way: “Going to bars, bitching about how bad we have it in comparison to other cities, or judging people based on what they are wearing.” </p>
<p>Such comments call into question certain assumptions of the contemporary gay rights movement, including that “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793609830/The-Gayborhood-From-Sexual-Liberation-to-Cosmopolitan-Spectacle">gayborhoods</a>” are the pinnacle of gay life and that rural America is no place for LGBTQ people. </p>
<p>This may be less true, though, for Black and Latino LGBTQ people. A <a href="https://www.equalityfederation.org/2019/09/new-report-offers-look-at-lives-of-lgbt-people-of-color-in-rural-america-shattering-stereotypes-of-life-in-rural-communities/">2019 report on rural LGBTQ Americans</a> found that “discrimination based on race and immigration status is compounded by discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.”</p>
<p>While I found no direct evidence that LGBTQ people of color were less likely to return to rural areas, the many difficulties of rural living for this population may partly explain why most of my interview subjects were white, despite my efforts to identify a more diverse pool.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman in helmet on bucking bull in a rodeo ring" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California’s Golden State Gay Rodeo Association holds an annual rodeo for LGBTQ rodeo riders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lisa-irving-of-san-diego-california-competes-in-the-bull-news-photo/72483360?adppopup=true">David McNew/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>But, as some of the people I interviewed reminded me, no matter where they lived they would not be fully accepted. </p>
<p>“As a trans person, I’m always going to have to deal with people discriminating against me,” one woman said. </p>
<p>Living in a rural locale with an active local music scene let her focus on aspects of her identity that were more important to her than her gender identity.</p>
<p>For some LGBTQ Americans, then, rural life allows them to more fully express themselves. Given the variety of issues facing LGBTQ Americans, from health care access to work problems, the rural world is not an escape from discrimination. </p>
<p>But neither are urban areas. </p>
<p>One lesbian from Kansas recalled attending a fundraiser for the <a href="https://www.hrc.org/">Human Rights Campaign</a> – the country’s most prominent LGBTQ advocacy group – in Washington, D.C., where a high-ranking member of the organization shook her hand and said, “Thank you so much. We need you out there in Kansas badly!” </p>
<p>To this the Kansan replied, “Thank me? I’ve been there my whole life. We are the ones who need you in Kansas. You are the ones who forgot about us!”</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher T. Conner is affiliated with the Kansas City Diversity Coalition and formerly with Indy Pride Inc. </span></em></p>Stereotypically, gay, queer and trans kids flee small towns to find acceptance in big, diverse cities like New York or Chicago. But evidence shows many will eventually return to rural areas.Christopher T. Conner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Missouri-ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1086432019-06-21T13:52:07Z2019-06-21T13:52:07ZQueers and trans say no to police presence at Pride parade<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280624/original/file-20190621-149847-1jx5w0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=286%2C100%2C4793%2C3332&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of Black Lives Matter Toronto take part in the annual Pride parade in Toronto on July 3, 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This weekend, queers and trans people (LGBTQ) and their allies in Toronto will take to the streets in the city’s Gay Village to celebrate and participate in the Trans and Dyke marches as well as the annual Pride parade. Will an official contingent of the Toronto Police Service be part of those celebrations? </p>
<p>A large group of queers and trans who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC), and their allies, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pride-parade-toronto-1.3662823">have refused to allow institutional police presence in Pride</a>. This has made them a target of the <a href="https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/levy-group-of-mostly-black-gay-activists-hellbent-on-destroying-pride">conservative news media</a> and people who would prefer a more normative, state-controlled Pride. </p>
<p>Many in the LGBTQ community want a different Pride, one that lays claim to the movement’s history, celebrates revolution and liberation and acknowledges the violence that many LGBTQ face, including violence and neglect from police services.</p>
<p>Last fall, a coalition of LGBTQ people formed the No Police in Pride Coalition (NPPC) after Olivia Nuamah, executive director of <a href="https://www.pridetoronto.com/">Pride Toronto</a>, held a news conference with Toronto police chief Mark Saunders and Toronto Mayor John Tory <a href="https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/pride-toronto-opens-door-for-police-to-march-in-parade">to invite police to officially participate in the Pride parade in uniform</a>. </p>
<p>Many in the community <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/12/04/pride-toronto-cuts-off-debate-on-police-in-parade.html">saw Nuamah’s invitation as undermining the membership’s decision.</a> Based on the recommendations made by Black Lives Matter Toronto in 2016, the Pride membership had already voted the previous two years <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-police-and-pride-toronto-activists-spark-a-movement-79089">not to have an official Toronto Police Services presence at Pride</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-police-and-pride-toronto-activists-spark-a-movement-79089">Black Lives Matter, police and Pride: Toronto activists spark a movement</a>
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<p>In January, during a closed meeting, the Toronto Pride membership <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pride-toronto-members-vote-no-to-allowing-police-to-march-in-annual-parade-1.4988642">voted 163 to 161 against having uniformed police march in the annual parade</a>. This vote reversed Nuamah’s unilateral decision. Once again, the Pride membership kept the Toronto Police Service from marching as a contingent in the Pride parade.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280628/original/file-20190621-149831-53kms6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280628/original/file-20190621-149831-53kms6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280628/original/file-20190621-149831-53kms6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280628/original/file-20190621-149831-53kms6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280628/original/file-20190621-149831-53kms6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280628/original/file-20190621-149831-53kms6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280628/original/file-20190621-149831-53kms6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Revellers pose for photos with police officers at the annual Pride Parade in Toronto in July 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch</span></span>
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<p>The mayor of Toronto, the premier of Ontario and the police chief all expressed frustration and anger at the Toronto Pride membership decision. The mayor <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/01/23/mayor-deeply-disappointed-in-pride-vote-banning-officers-from-2019-parade/">scolded the Pride membership and threatened to exert more pressure to ensure a desired outcome</a> and Premier Doug Ford has declared that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-toronto-pride-parade-1.5159859">he will not attend the Pride parade</a>. </p>
<p>Many believe that the determination to force our communities to accept uniformed police in Pride amounts to contempt for the many trans and queers who do not feel safe in the presence of police. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gay-village-killings-show-theres-still-tension-between-toronto-cops-lgbtq-community-107560">Gay Village killings show there's still tension between Toronto cops, LGBTQ community</a>
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<p>The reasons for not wanting police in uniform at a queer celebration are numerous. Black and Indigenous transgender women <a href="https://invisiblenomorebook.com/the-book/">face violence at the hands of the police on a regular basis.</a> Many queers and particularly those who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) face <a href="https://theconversation.com/islamophobia-and-hate-crimes-continue-to-rise-in-canada-110635">increased risk in the current heightened anti-Black, racist, Islamophobic</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/keepingcanadasafe/blog/how-canadians-protect-their-communities-from-hate-crimes">transphobic and homophobic climate</a> and their safety is not assured by police presence. </p>
<h2>Lack of faith in police</h2>
<p>Nuamah’s invitation to the Toronto Police to participate in the Pride parade came during a challenging time. Many in the queer and trans communities were still reeling from the deaths of mostly brown men in Toronto’s Gay Village. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/23/bruce-mcarthur-toronto-gay-serial-killer">Many had suspected a serial killer</a> and reported men missing but felt their concerns were not taken seriously by Toronto police. </p>
<p>It was revealed that police made little attempt to investigate the disappearances of several men of colour from the Gay Village between 2010 and 2017. In 2017, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/death-of-alloura-wells-tells-a-story-of-a-vulnerablecommunity/article37356642/">Alloura Wells</a>, a multiracial, trans sex worker, vanished. Her remains were discovered in a ravine in August but weren’t identified by police until December. </p>
<p>Black trans women <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/fear-that-lgbtq-safe-space-in-toronto-now-where-they-are-least-safe-as-residents-vanish">have also gone missing and have been killed</a> with very little effort made by police to look for them or solve their murders. Sumaya Dalmar, a Somalian transgender woman, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sumaya-dalmar-transgender-colour-1.4582866">died under what has been described as mysterious circumstances</a>. Police refused to keep the investigation open and discounted that her death was a homicide. </p>
<h2>Police banned from parades in several cities</h2>
<p>The increasing anti-Black, racist and transphobic violence against queers and trans and BIPOC people has resulted in Pride committees across North America, in cities <a href="https://www.straight.com/life/867446/black-lives-matter-vancouver-want-lgbt-concerns-prioritized-over-police-involvement">like Vancouver and Hamilton, barring official police participation in Pride</a>. In New York, a counter-march was organized by the Reclaim Pride Coalition. Reclaim has organized an alternative Pride with no police and no corporate floats. They hope <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-lgbtq-reclaim-pride-queer-liberation-march-20190515-z3mpfpugtjhfthymyitm5pdaly-story.html">to bring back a spirit of rebellion</a> to an event they say has become a money-driven spectacle. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/islamophobia-and-hate-crimes-continue-to-rise-in-canada-110635">Islamophobia and hate crimes continue to rise in Canada</a>
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<p>The desire of some queers and trans to be recognized and included in normative nation and state institutions has fuelled the current tensions. The <a href="https://nowtoronto.com/news/queer-trans-pride-toronto-police-black-lives-matter/">neo-liberal corporatized agenda</a> that has shaped Pride festivities over the past decade has made it seem impossible to think or imagine an alternative to the corporatized Pride model.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280627/original/file-20190621-149814-11tcit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280627/original/file-20190621-149814-11tcit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280627/original/file-20190621-149814-11tcit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280627/original/file-20190621-149814-11tcit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280627/original/file-20190621-149814-11tcit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280627/original/file-20190621-149814-11tcit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280627/original/file-20190621-149814-11tcit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People from the Black Lives Matter movement march during the Pride parade in Toronto in June 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch</span></span>
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<p>This year, Pride celebrates the 50th year of the Stonewall uprising that has come to define the birth of queer organizing in North America. The Stonewall uprising was led by <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-york-city-monument-will-honor-transgender-activists-marsha-p-johnson-and-sylvia-rivera-180972326/">Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender woman, and Sylvia Reviera, a Latina transgender woman.</a>. </p>
<p>Given this history and given recent events, this year’s Pride could have been an opportunity for some political programming and a time of reflection on the origins of Pride and where we are in the struggle for queer and trans liberation. But the leadership of Pride Toronto are content with the current depoliticized nature of the month-long event.</p>
<p>Many of us in the queer, trans and BIPOC trans and queer communities desire a different Pride, one that lays claim to the political histories; a Pride celebration that values revolution and liberation. </p>
<p>Many would like to see a Pride that challenges and critiques white, neo-liberal, homo-nationalist agendas: a Pride celebration where the state and its machinations have no claim.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108643/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beverly Bain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many in the LGBTQ community want a different Pride, one that lays claim to the movement’s history, celebrates revolution and liberation and acknowledges the violence that many LGBTQ face.Beverly Bain, Lecturer, Women and Gender Studies-UTM Campus, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/978372018-06-19T21:57:55Z2018-06-19T21:57:55ZIs queer culture losing its radical roots?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223887/original/file-20180619-126566-1nujdh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Has Pride been coopted? This year's Pride parade spectators have been asked to wear black in honour of the victims of serial killers. A drag queen at the Toronto 2016 gay pride parade.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you check out popular Canadian gay magazines such as <a href="http://inmagazine.ca/"><em>IN Magazine</em></a>, <a href="https://www.out.com/"><em>OUT Magazine</em></a> and <a href="https://gayliving.ca/magazines/"><em>Gay Living</em></a>, you may find headlines like: “Gay couple travels across Spain with pets” and “Middle-Age, Sexless Marriage: What’s to be Done?” along with the latest news about RuPaul’s <em>Drag Race</em> or the new <em>Queer Eye</em> series. Perusing these articles, one wouldn’t think gay men had any serious problems at all.</p>
<p>However, the more political <a href="https://www.dailyxtra.com/toronto-raises-the-pride-and-trans-flags-at-a-time-of-tragedy-87032"><em>Daily Xtra</em></a> featured a headline about this year’s Toronto 2018 Pride procession planned <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pride-toronto-mcarthur-gayvillage-parade-1.4643568">to remember not only the victims of an alleged gay serial killer,</a> but also <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/05/02/annual-pride-toronto-parade-to-be-a-mourning-procession-for-victims-of-alleged-serial-killer-and-the-van-rampage.html">those murdered by a van driver</a> in Toronto in April. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.pridetoronto.com/2018/04/17/pride-torontos-2018-theme-35-years-of-aids-activism/">official theme of this year’s Pride Parade</a>, “35 years of AIDS Activism” seems to have <a href="http://inmagazine.ca/2018/05/torontos-pride-parade-will-pay-tribute-to-bruce-mcarthurs-victims/">subtly shifted to emphasizing Toronto’s loss</a> related to these recent serial murders.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223885/original/file-20180619-126550-10f2cli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223885/original/file-20180619-126550-10f2cli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223885/original/file-20180619-126550-10f2cli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223885/original/file-20180619-126550-10f2cli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223885/original/file-20180619-126550-10f2cli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223885/original/file-20180619-126550-10f2cli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223885/original/file-20180619-126550-10f2cli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A woman walks during the Pride parade in Toronto in June 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch</span></span>
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<p>Spectators at this year’s Pride <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/05/02/annual-pride-toronto-parade-to-be-a-mourning-procession-for-victims-of-alleged-serial-killer-and-the-van-rampage.html">are now being urged to wear black</a>, “to signify that while the festival goes on, this is a period of huge trauma for the whole city, particularly the LGBTQ community,” as executive director Olivia Nuamah told <em>the Toronto Star</em>.</p>
<p>I do not mean to diminish the horrors perpetrated by these (or any other) serial killers. Yet I would suggest that serial killers are not the most serious problem facing gay men in Toronto today. </p>
<h2>Depression, minority stress and suicide</h2>
<p>Cultural reporter Michael Hobbes writes about suicide and depression in the gay male community in a 2017 article, “<a href="https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/gay-loneliness/">The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness</a>.”</p>
<p>Hobbes writes that gay people are now, depending on the study, between two and 10 times more likely than straight people to take their own lives. We’re twice as likely to have a major depressive episode. </p>
<p>In Sweden, which has had civil unions since 1995 and full marriage since 2009, men married to men have triple the suicide rate of men married to women. So even with all the legal changes, it is still dangerously alienating to go through life as a man attracted to other men.</p>
<p>Hobbes attributes the escalating suicide rates to what is called “minority stress.” He says: “Minority stress in its most direct form, it’s pretty simple: Being a member of a marginalized group requires extra effort.” </p>
<p>Part of the stress also comes from online dating apps like Grindr, Hobbes says. “If someone rejected you at a bathhouse, you could still have a conversation afterwards. Maybe you end up with a friend out of it, or at least something that becomes a positive social experience. On the apps, you just get ignored if someone doesn’t perceive you as a sexual or romantic conquest.”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223891/original/file-20180619-126531-p7qvrg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223891/original/file-20180619-126531-p7qvrg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223891/original/file-20180619-126531-p7qvrg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223891/original/file-20180619-126531-p7qvrg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223891/original/file-20180619-126531-p7qvrg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223891/original/file-20180619-126531-p7qvrg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223891/original/file-20180619-126531-p7qvrg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The early days of gay liberation: A dance at Gay Activist Alliance Firehouse in 1971.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-5edd-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99">Diana Davies/The New York Public Library Digital Collections.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Addiction linked to depression</h2>
<p>Depression comes with a side effect: Drug addiction. A 2017 article by music producer Anthony “aCe” Pabey, “<a href="https://thump.vice.com/en_us/article/zmvej4/meth-ghb-epidemic-gay-queer-men-grindr">We Need to Talk About the Queer Community’s Meth and GHB Epidemic</a>” explains the situation.</p>
<p>In London, meth users who inject the drug while having sex jumped from 20 per cent in 2011 to 80 per cent in 2012, according to LGBT drug-and-alcohol support service <a href="https://www.nationalvoices.org.uk/wellbeing-our-way/wow-exchange/antidote">Antidote</a>. Hookup apps like Grindr and Scruff have gone so far as to ban words associated with drug use such as “meth” and “party.” </p>
<p><em>Buzzfeed</em> reported that <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/amandachicagolewis/the-responsible-high-that-is-also-a-date-rape-drug?utm_term=.mbLDeqBRN#.uslV3on8m">emergency room doctors in San Francisco have encountered the drug with increasing regularity</a>, particularly among gay professionals. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223896/original/file-20180619-126534-8r33hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223896/original/file-20180619-126534-8r33hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223896/original/file-20180619-126534-8r33hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223896/original/file-20180619-126534-8r33hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223896/original/file-20180619-126534-8r33hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223896/original/file-20180619-126534-8r33hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223896/original/file-20180619-126534-8r33hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In this 2016 photo, a 19-year-old transgender teen who declined to be identified because she feared for her life after receiving death threats poses for a photo in Texas. Juvenile detention centres are largely ill-equipped to house transgender young people, leaving them vulnerable to bullying, sexual assault, depression and suicide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eric Gay)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Many economic challenges</h2>
<p>Depression, suicide and epidemic drug use? How can this be? Aren’t gay men happy hedonists and rich as hell to boot? Not according to a 2014 article in <em>The Atlantic</em>, “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/the-myth-of-gay-affluence/284570/">The Myth of Gay Affluence</a>:” “In reality, gay Americans face disproportionately greater economic challenges than their straight counterparts. </p>
<p>A new report released by UCLA’s Williams Institute found <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/press-releases/study-finds-lgbt-adults-experience-food-insecurity-and-snap-participation-at-higher-levels-than-non-lgbt-adults/">29 per cent of LGBT adults, about 2.4 million people, experienced food insecurity.</a></p>
<h2>The Stockholm Syndrome</h2>
<p>If the plight of gay men is so dire, why are gay magazines obsessed with pets who travel — and RuPaul? Why is the message of this year’s Pride that gay men are just the same as anyone else — including, tragically, the victims of serial killers? </p>
<p>Why are gay men dedicated to perpetrating a false image of themselves as not being victims of oppression? </p>
<p>I believe gay men are presently passing through a kind of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22447726">Stockholm Syndrome</a> in which the captured begin to identify with their captors to such an extent that they wish to become them. In this case, it is the oppressed identifying with their oppressors. </p>
<p>Though the phrase Stockholm Syndrome was coined <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/six-day-hostage-standoff-gave-rise-stockholm-syndrome-180964537/">after a bank robbery in 1973</a>, Irish novelist James Joyce spoke eloquently of the symptoms of identifying with your oppressors in his collection of short stories called <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/321917/dubliners-by-james-joyce/9780140247749/readers-guide/"><em>Dubliners</em></a>. </p>
<p>In "A Little Cloud,” the leading character is a dreamy, melancholy Irishman named Little Chandler — prone to fantasizing about being an English poet: “The English critics, perhaps, would recognize him as one of the Celtic school by reason of the melancholy tone of his poems.” <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-26883211">England ruled Ireland from the time of Henry VIII to 1949.</a> Irish citizens — who were persecuted for their Catholicism — toiled away as servants for absentee British landlords on their own stolen farms. </p>
<p>Despite or perhaps because of this history of oppression, Joyce’s Little Chandler has an epiphany: <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/james-joyce-and-the-problem-of-justice/D852158AA22F5ABCF0012521CF99154D">“Was it too late for him to try to live bravely like Gallaher? Could he go to London?</a>” </p>
<p>Joyce’s character does not have the strength of will to rebel against his oppressors. On the contrary, he sympathizes with them, because, English literature scholar <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/james-joyce-and-the-problem-of-justice/D852158AA22F5ABCF0012521CF99154D">Joseph Valente says</a> — “Chandler has been colonized by Gallaher’s attitude.”</p>
<p>In the same way, has resistance to homophobia been co-opted?</p>
<p>Recently, hip hop star Kanye West tweeted: “I love the way Candace Owen thinks.” Candace Owens’ message, <a href="http://quillette.com/2018/04/24/kanye-west-future-black-conservatism/">according to critical race writer Coleman Hughes,</a> “is that there’s a stubborn refusal — among Blacks and whites alike — to let go of the narrative that Blacks are continually beleaguered by white racism.”</p>
<p>According to Owens, what we need is a new story about what Black America can be, which “looks toward a bright future instead of clinging to an ugly past.” </p>
<p>Owens is not alone — many people hold these conservative views. Hughes mentions that “a <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/on-views-of-race-and-inequality-blacks-and-whites-are-worlds-apart/">2016 Pew poll found that</a> 60 per cent of Blacks without college degrees say their race hasn’t affected their chances of success.”</p>
<p>But we all know that racism and homophobia are systemic issues woven throughout our daily lives.</p>
<h2>Origins of gay liberation</h2>
<p>Is it any wonder that an oppressed minority might hope that wishful thinking might spirit oppression away? </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/an-amazing-1969-account-of-the-stonewall-uprising/272467/">Stonewall uprising</a> — the much celebrated night of rebellion of 1969 when radical queers (sex trade workers, lesbians and drag queens) took to the streets to riot against the police at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan — inspired the modern gay liberation movement and it’s the reason we mark Pride weekend. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223892/original/file-20180619-126534-5431u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223892/original/file-20180619-126534-5431u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223892/original/file-20180619-126534-5431u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223892/original/file-20180619-126534-5431u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223892/original/file-20180619-126534-5431u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223892/original/file-20180619-126534-5431u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223892/original/file-20180619-126534-5431u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The raid of New York’s Stonewall Inn in 1969 and the protests that followed inspired gay liberation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Diana Davies/The New York Public Library</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet gay liberation didn’t begin with Stonewall. </p>
<p><a href="http://progressive.org/magazine/meet-pioneer-gay-rights-harry-hay/">Harry Hay</a> — a card-carrying communist and proud effeminate “fairy” — founded <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mattachine-Society">The Mattachine Society</a> in 1950. It was devoted to the notion that oppression had made gay men into different beings than straight men and that consequently there was such a thing as gay culture. </p>
<p>However, in 1953, as the oral historian <a href="http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/john-d-emilio--oral-histories/harry-hay">John D’Emilio tells us</a>, Hay was ousted by the New Mattachine society, which then tackled the enormous task of trying to “adjust to a pattern of behaviour that is acceptable to society in general (and) compatible with the recognized institutions…of home, church and state.” </p>
<p>But this more conservative Mattachine Society had little success. </p>
<p>It took a decade, and the Stonewall uprisings, to effect the changes that helped create what we know today as gay liberation. </p>
<h2>Let’s be radical</h2>
<p>But the pendulum has swung back again. It seems that once again, gay men are committed to lying about their oppression. How long will we continue this futile pattern of oppressing ourselves?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223886/original/file-20180619-126563-1ac4xg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223886/original/file-20180619-126563-1ac4xg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223886/original/file-20180619-126563-1ac4xg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223886/original/file-20180619-126563-1ac4xg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223886/original/file-20180619-126563-1ac4xg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223886/original/file-20180619-126563-1ac4xg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223886/original/file-20180619-126563-1ac4xg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman dances in bubbles during the Toronto Pride Parade in Toronto in July 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I had the privilege of meeting Harry Hay once — by chance — in a Provincetown restaurant in the ‘90s. I’ll never forget it. </p>
<p>I immediately recognized him and felt compelled to introduce myself. (This was a “once-in-a-lifetime” chance!) Hay was old. Standing near, but at a bit of a distance from him, was his lifetime partner, John. </p>
<p>I asked Mr. Hay why he was in Provincetown, and he said, “You won’t like my answer.” I said, “You never know.” </p>
<p>“I’m here to protest gay marriage,” he said. I told him that I agreed with his position. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223904/original/file-20180619-126566-7n0mw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223904/original/file-20180619-126566-7n0mw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223904/original/file-20180619-126566-7n0mw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223904/original/file-20180619-126566-7n0mw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223904/original/file-20180619-126566-7n0mw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223904/original/file-20180619-126566-7n0mw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223904/original/file-20180619-126566-7n0mw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Burnside and Harry Hay with matching caps, June 25, 1994.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sfpl.org/sfphotos">SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, he felt compelled to explain it. “You see that man over there? He’s my lover John. John and I have been together for a very long time. But we are not married. We would never marry. You see, at any moment I could leave him. We have that kind of relationship. I mean I could leave him for someone like…like well…like for you, for instance.” And his eyes sparkled. </p>
<p>I can say that Harry Hay — the founder of the gay liberation movement — flirted with me when he suggested he might very well cheat — with me — on his lifetime partner. </p>
<p>I’m not bragging about this. But it all just goes to prove that, unlike many gay men today, Harry Hay was not afraid to tell the truth. </p>
<p>Harry Hay knew that it was only by the admission of difficult truths that we can ever find the path to true liberation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97837/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sky Gilbert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Spectators at Toronto’s Pride parade this year are being asked to wear black to honour victims of serial killers. While it’s right to mourn, it’s not the biggest issue facing gay communities today.Sky Gilbert, Professor, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/800402017-06-29T23:52:48Z2017-06-29T23:52:48ZRight to party: 20 years of Black Queer love and resilience<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176297/original/file-20170629-5925-1cur9xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blockorama celebrated its 19th year this Pride; a hard won right to celebrate. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(GerardRichardson.com)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This past Sunday, Blackness Yes celebrated 19 years of Blockorama. “Blocko,” as it is more popularly known, is an event that brings thousands together every year to celebrate Black queer pride. </p>
<p>Though Blocko has grown to become a protected and joyful space, it has been hard won by community activists who had to continuously battle the corporate mission of the Pride committee in order to maintain its stature, physical space and funding. </p>
<p>One of the lesser known demands of Black Lives Matter (BLM-TO) when they stopped the Toronto Pride parade last year was to increase funding and space for Blocko. Black queers and Black people in general have been emboldened by the work of BLM-TO to confront anti-Black racism and violence from police in our communities and in the white queer community. The right to celebrate within a safe space is part of this.</p>
<p>As a Black queer feminist and gender studies scholar, and the former executive director of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, I have both lived and studied feminist and queer movements. I have written extensively on Blockorama in the book <a href="http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/GENWES.html"><em>We Still Demand</em></a> as a way to examine Black queer diasporic space, identity, joy and political resistance. </p>
<h2>You gotta fight for your right to party</h2>
<p>Blockorama has become the place at Pride where you go to eat Caribbean food, to listen and dance to soca, reggae, house, rap and R&B. It is the space where drag queens such as the <a href="https://www.dailyxtra.com/parliament-of-queens-12920">legendary Michelle Ross</a> delights the crowd with her shimmering and exquisite performances. It is in the space where vogue dancers, spoken word artists, drummers, soca, reggae, DJs like Nik Redd, Black Kat, and DJ Shani create fire. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176290/original/file-20170629-11567-1xoe4b8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176290/original/file-20170629-11567-1xoe4b8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176290/original/file-20170629-11567-1xoe4b8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176290/original/file-20170629-11567-1xoe4b8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176290/original/file-20170629-11567-1xoe4b8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176290/original/file-20170629-11567-1xoe4b8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176290/original/file-20170629-11567-1xoe4b8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DJ Nik Redd.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Vinita Srivastava)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Blockorama allows Black diasporic queers, trans and their families to celebrate their love and desire in a space where blackness emanates joy and pleasure through movement, music, art and performance.</p>
<p>This space, forged from desire and passion, is also a political space. <a href="http://research.omicsgroup.org/index.php/Sylvia_Wynter">Sylvia Wynter</a>
reminds us that producing and performing culture <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/183731934/Sylvia-Wynter-Rethinking-Aesthetics-Notes-Towards-A-Deciphering-Practice-pdf">is a form of resistance.</a> </p>
<p>Blockorama was started by Black queer activists: Jamea Zuberi, Angela Robertson, Camille Orridge, Junior David Harrison and Douglas Stewart. These individuals were queer activists and feminists and were active in the women’s, anti-racism and wider LGBT movements in Toronto. They were part of a community who had marched against racist police violence, fought racism in the women’s movement and challenged sexism and homophobia in the Black community. </p>
<p>Zuberi, who spearheaded the birth of Blocko, felt that the Pride parade bore a resemblance to Trinidad and Tobago Carnival with its vibrant colours and colourful costumes but it lacked the presence of people of colour. She and her community pitched the idea to Pride Committee in order to get access to funding and Blockorama was born. </p>
<p>As Black diasporic queers, we have always occupied multiple spaces but have often experienced these spaces as restricting, invisibilizing and undermining of our Blackness and queerness. </p>
<p>The Blockorama space was a way to reinsert Black diasporic queerness into Toronto Pride. The history writers of Pride often forget to acknowledge the work of Black queers in the foundation years. </p>
<p>The “Blackness” that defines Blockorama encompasses the Caribbean, Africa and North America. The Blocko space allows room for those whose “Blackness” include Afro-hyphenated, Creole, mixed, or other designations, sexualities already given names, and those unnamed.</p>
<h2>Corporate missions take over</h2>
<p>When Blockorama began in 1998, it was situated in the parking lot in front of Toronto’s Wellesley subway station. For many Black queers going to Pride that year, the space represented a shift in belonging: knowing there was a space where Blackness and queerness would be embraced. However, between 2007-2010, the Blockorama event was moved to less suitable locations, farther away from the Pride festivities, <a href="https://this.org/2010/07/02/pride-toronto-blocko-blackness-yes/">to make room for corporate sponsored events</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176329/original/file-20170630-31064-1asbhcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176329/original/file-20170630-31064-1asbhcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176329/original/file-20170630-31064-1asbhcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176329/original/file-20170630-31064-1asbhcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176329/original/file-20170630-31064-1asbhcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176329/original/file-20170630-31064-1asbhcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176329/original/file-20170630-31064-1asbhcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blockorama has been hard won by activists who had to battle the corporate mission of the Pride committee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Vinita Srivastava)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Blackness Yes, the organizing committee of Blocko, and many of its allies — myself included — viewed these displacements as a cleansing of the gay village space so as to reflect a predominant white corporate version of pride. </p>
<p>Canadian scholar <a href="http://www.katherinemckittrick.com/">Katherine McKittrick </a>writes about Canada’s long history
of concealing and erasing Blackness from the landscape as a way to preserve the image of Canada as a “white” nation. This practice was at work in the series of removals and displacement of the yearly Blockorama stage.</p>
<p>The racism and homonormativity that informs white queerness in North America was exposed last year after Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLM-TO) brought the Pride parade to a halt for 30 minutes until the Executive Director of Pride agreed to sign onto several demands made by BLM-TO. </p>
<p>The most publicized demand — to remove Toronto Police from floats — <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-police-and-pride-toronto-activists-spark-a-movement-79089">has been eloquently discussed in the Conversation</a> this week by my colleague, Rinaldo Walcott. </p>
<p>One of the less known demands was to double the funding for Blockorama and other marginalized queer community events within pride. </p>
<p>The backlash, particularly from white queers in Toronto was swift and furious. Many of the attacks of BLM-TO came through social media like Facebook and Twitter. These social media critics accused BLM-TO of attempting to hold Toronto Pride hostage to a political agenda, as if Pride was not founded on politics. Many critics argued BLM-TO had no right to stop the parade because they were an invited group. The assumption here, of course, was that BLM-TO members were not queer and did not inherently belong to Pride. </p>
<h2>Take it Black: Blockorama 19</h2>
<p>The Blockorama event has grown tremendously over the past 19 years and throughout those years, Blackness Yes continued to host several events that traced Black diasporic queer and trans histories that affirmed and celebrated our visibility and activism. </p>
<p>There was a heightened sense of exhilaration and joy at this year’s event. It was truly a celebration to mark the fierceness and boldness of Black queers and trans in pride. </p>
<p>While Black queers and Black people in general have experienced the increasing sting of anti-Blackness over the last year, we have been fortified by the work of BLM-TO to confront anti-Black racism and violence. </p>
<p>Blocko’s theme this year was “Take it Black” — a statement that asks us to remember the struggles it took to get here but it is also a declaration of Black queer fearlessness, resilience, desire and power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80040/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beverly Bain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of the lesser known demands of Black Lives Matter is the right to a safe space to celebrate Black Queer Lives. This year’s Blockorama party in Toronto is evidence the movement is progressing.Beverly Bain, Lecturer, Women and Gender Studies-UTM Campus, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.