This time it’s about the theme:

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The theme for this year’s Seattle Pride Parade, “We Are ALL American”, is generating quite a bit of discussion within the community. This year the focus is on celebrating the passing of Referendum 71, the first time in American history that a LGBT civil rights issue was approved at a state ballot box, however a faction within the community has come forward because they feel that the theme is “offensive” and “attempts to normalize the LGBT community.”

Yeah, the last thing we want is to be seen as, you know, normal. Nearly a hundred comments on a Facebook page set up by interns at Seattle Out and Proud (SOAP), the group that organizes the annual parade, to solicit feedback about a decision that has already been made. After quickly scanning the comments: we are not all Americans, we don’t have equal rights under the law in America, the civil rights of gay Americans are under assault by other Americans, etc. And, again, who wants to be seen as normal? The debate rages.

Quick—what was the theme of last year’s parade?

27 replies on “Another Year, Another Pride Parade Controversy”

  1. Yeah, well that’s the other side of the coin Gay Folk.

    Now you can enjoy all the luxuries that straight married people do, like watching your spouse age into a fat blob while you scour the Internet for porn and your two kids browbeat you for money.

    No more glitter and triple digit sex partners as you settle into the humdrum life you so craved.

  2. a lot of hubbub over a boring parade with lame floats, beer trucks and lesbians on motorcycles and a festival that’s dull as a church picnic in Kansas.

  7. Whatever the theme, the local news will show footage of the grossest dude there, invariably wearing a rainbow-colored jock strap and rollerblades. Or the leather BDSM people who think they’re opening minds by appearing in public flouting their fetish.

    The best possible gay pride parade would be almost unidentifiable as a parade because everyone would be wearing their normal street or work clothes, sending the message that gays aren’t all freakshow leather daddies or trannies. But that might change minds, so stick with banana slings and Village People get-ups…

  9. Yes, the great conundrum.
    Hundreds of thousands show up for the Seattle Pride Parade. Many people show up because they want to see a unique show. A bachelorette party like spectacle. The dude wearing a rainbow-colored jock strap on rollerblades. Some are playing up to what the crowd really wants to see. Is that good for the gay image? Most likely not. It’s a dilemma. Thank you America for pie eating contests and three-legged races!

  10. Add to this.

    As a regional delegate to the national organizing committee for the 1993 MOW, we spent 29 of the worst hours of my life deciding on the full name of the 93 MOW. PS it is not 93 MOW.

    It is:
    March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation

    Those are 29 hours that I will never get back.

    Imagine for a moment the discussion over ‘bi’
    and we discussed trans and it did not go in at the time.
    and I might add, a considerably longer period of time was spent on the platform and even I dont remember what that has on it.

  13. Last year’s theme was groups of people holding banners. That about covers it. Seattle is a major city, can we try to do SOMETHING with our parade rather than just having a bunch of people holding signs? It’s a total snoozefest.

  15. Oh for Christ’s sake, are we STILL having this argument? Just because I was born queer, doesn’t mean that I should feel obligated to become a socialist, overthrow the current form of government and/or social institutions or to create utopia.

    I am entitled to equality under the Constitution. If straight people get to marry the one they love, then I should be allowed to marry the one I love. They don’t get to marry 3 people at once, and I shouldn’t expect to be able to either. The battle for group marriage and other sweeping social changes should not be confused with the fight for equality.

    I demand to be equal right now, with all the good and all the bad that entails. Equality is not a smorgasbord from which one gets to choose those things s/he wants to be equal in while rejecting those s/he doesn’t.

  16. 16
    Where do strait people get to marry the person they “love”?
    What state, county, city, village asks if two people are in “love” before granting a marriage license?
    In what jurisdiction are straits entitled to marry the one they “love”?

  17. I’m going to nit-pick the article:

    “…Referendum 71, the first time in American history that a LGBT civil rights issue was approved at a state ballot box…”

    Let’s not forget that in 2005, Maine voters upheld the state’s nondiscrimination law in a statewide vote. It was the third time that a nondiscrimination law was put up for a vote in Maine (we lost the first two), which made the victory so much sweeter.

    That said, ditto @2.

  25. @16 – you are perfectly entitled to want rights that other people have and you don’t. But don’t pretend that you getting access to the institution that marginalizes ALL forms of sexuality taking place outside of marriage – as well as marginalizing those who are not sexually involved – is tantamount to “equality.”

    It’s just you getting a cut of a shitty deal. Don’t worry about the rest of us, though. Just act righteous for looking out for yourself.

  26. It’d be a lot simpler if the theme for the Pride parade was “Gay Pride.” I think the committee is over-thinking things here.

    I don’t like the “Pride Parade as Outreach to the Straights” idea. As Homer so wisely said; I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals FLAMING.

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