The gay folks in Hong Kong are taking great steps forward with their first ever Gay Pride Parade. The 1000+ parade peeps took to the streets and sent shock waves to onlookers who have never seen anything of the gay sort.
Hong Kong, which only legalized homosexuality in 1991, is one of the few places under China’s control that would tolerate such a parade.
Video of the parade after the jump
Well it was a overcast day with scattered showers so apparently god doesn’t approve of us marching(jk jk). I went to a local college to meet some friends and from there we went to this local large town of Montclair. I was originally set on going to the New York City Protest, but apparently some other folks were more set on the Montclair March so we rushed ourselves over.
This was my first ever march protest of any kind. It was very humbling and gave me a sense of community and duty of sorts. It gave me a real live view of what this whole gay marriage movement really is. I was wasn’t looking at it through a Computer, I wasn’t hearing about it from a news pundit. I was there. I was fighting for not my rights and the rights of millions of other people. Simply put it felt good to make some sort of impact.
It was really ironic that while we were marching down the streets a group of people taking wedding photos across the streets from us. I could only imagine how much envy the gay families who were marching felt.
We were families, We were Priests, We were of every color, We were together as one. Limited by no bounds. Unified together for equal rights.
For more info on the march check out this news article(see if you can spot the photo of me)
Pictures I took below.
I’ll have a video up sometime Sunday.
Hopefully you know today(its like 12:39 am) is the nation wide gay rights protest Join the Impact. I myself most likely will be at the New York City event probably in the soaking rain. Yet still its time for hope, time to get hyped up. For all those people who are still debating whether to go out to and protest keep this in mind when making your decision. Are you going to do something historic tomorrow or are you going to go on with your life?
This video always gets me in the mood to make a difference to do something memorable.
Since the passing of Proposition 8 in California part of the gay community has done a bit of soul searching, but most other people are now playing the blame game. Some people are blaming the blacks, some people are blaming the Mormons. Yes both those groups are at some fault, but the real reason why Prop 8 passed is because we forgot how the gay rights game is played.
I was on Youtube late last night and I came across a documentary on Harvey Milk. One Pivotal points of Harvey Milk’s carrier was his campaign against California’s Proposition 6. Proposition 6 was headed by John Briggs which was a statewide measure to deny gay people from being teachers.
As seen in this video at 6:40 John Brigg’s argument for Proposition 6 is strikingly similar to the whole argument set out by the whole anti gay marriage crowd. That children will be the victims if gays get any rights. We all know that children are not “at risk” if gay marriage is passed, but many people still hold that unfounded fear. Next time we need to show that their is nothing to fear. We need to show the truth.
Even though Prop 8 has passed we have still progressed. Prop 6 was drafted only 30 years ago. Look how far we have come. Instead of debating the merits of Gays being allowed to teach we are debating our rights to equal marriage. It is inevitable that the near future will view Prop 6 and Prop 8 to be equally unjust.
I’ve been browsing along the gay blogosphere and have came across numerous dismal stories about how hopeless gay marriage is. Yes we might not have gay marriage in California for much longer, but we will always have witty protests signs that can brighten the darkest of days.
It was epic. A stellar time. I was a bit nervous because I was going their alone so I was a bit skittish. Like who goes to a gay party at a church really? Well I guess I do. Well I was the first one there so it wasn’t that bad and I recognized a lot of people from the last dance. We immediately started conversing while the DJs were setting up. We came across some odd books in the library while we were waiting. One such book detailed information about Gay Midlife, keep in mind we are in a church. So anyway we were talking about a religion for a bit. Most of us turned out to be agnostic or atheist. I pulled out a random Bible and read some good old Leviticus. I learned if you fuck an animal you shall be put to death and so will the animal.
So about 30 or so people showed up and we had a joyous gay time. The music was decent they played mostly 80’s music which I didn’t particularly love. Also they played You Spin Me Round three times, but they only played the one with the lyrics once. I requested Lady Ga Ga and Dangerous Muse, didn’t get to hear that. They played a lot of infernal oh well its okay I suppose. I really have to thank all the
I was the only person who took pictures I believe so I’m not in most of them if your wondering.
The follwing is a guest post by “They Still Call me E~” from the Thorspace Forum.
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Whenever I’m pressed to do a report/speech/historyproject, I always make sure to focus on a Gay issue. Of course, the response I get is never enthusiastic. Heads go down, iPods are turned up, and the moment I pause I can expect to hear a quick yelp of “Butt Pirate!” or “Fag!” like clockwork. But there’s always this one kid. Some of you might be familiar with them. The Mighty Teenaged Intellectual; sarcastic, scalding, and ultimately smart assed, the Teenaged Intellectual is ready to argue until the break of dawn, and is always convienced they “win” all their arguements. They’re not hard to spot, a confident, wise assed smile is always plastered on their face. They are the one’s who always keep their eyes locked on me, waiting for me to falter for a moment, to reconfirm the weakness they like to assume I have. The look on their face instantly tells me what they’re thinking.
“Typical of a faggot”
They are the ones that always keep me on my toes, sitting quitely (though still self assured) waiting until I finish, and a teacher asks for questions and criticism. This is when they spring into action, preparing to (Try to) tear me down, and reconfirm their own views. Most commonly, they blast me for portraying us as oppressed, or always doing a gay topic. Trying to convience me that i’m weak because being gay has become my (percieved) only identity. Typically we “debate” for 10 or so minutes, which consists of them attacking me instead of my topic. This lasts until a teacher intervenes or I get bored. (TIP: Never argue with people who are convienced they know everything, they are physically incapable of learning or changing their views to something different.)
However, it’s not them who catch my ears or even peek my intrest after everyone prepares to leave; it is my now unsilenced peers and the question they always pose to each other as they leave.
“Why do gay people have to talk about being gay so much?”
That is what saddens me. They will never understand why. They just can’t get what it feels like to be the only one in a room. To be the gay kid in in their straight world. What sucks about this is that they’re not bad people either. (I like to think they repersent America’s silent majority.) I can’t bring myself to hate them.
But I have to remind myself why I do this, each day, so I can go on; so that the chaos inside me doesn’t swallow me up, so I can remember.
Because someone has to…
Because someone has to stand up and say “This is not a straight world.”, that we do exist.
That we are not some underground counter-culture on the society’s fringes.
That the people that they mock and have made a symbol of weakness do actually exist.
While they sit so comfortable in their Heterosexual world, where there is nothing to challenge them, they care not that every “fag” or “Poofter” they carelessly throw around with such easy is another knick in some kids wrist.
And so I’ll never “Shut the hell up about it”. I’ll continue to do what I do because someone needs to know that they’re not alone, that they’re NOT the only ones. And I’ll hope for them and me, that maybe just maybe, someone else will listen; that someone will see that they’re causing pain and I do something about it.
The follwing is a guest post by “They call me E~” from the Thorspace Forum.
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Heterophobia.
That’s one hell of a double entendre.
One the surface, its obvious meaning today, would be the fear (I.E. Hate) of Heterosexuals, and Heterosexuality. And then, there’s the base meaning:
Heterophobia - The fear of difference.
When I first saw this new “Slogan” I promptly laughed my ass off for several minutes. (Why is it that homophobic snarl words and phrases always make their users seem more heartless and wicked than their target?) For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of hearing or seeing it used in practice, I’ll fill you in: The idea behind Heterophobia is that by trying to gain “Heterosexual” rights, Homosexuals are in fact rejecting, and attacking Heterosexuals and their Heterosexual identity.
After seeing its use, and my amusement ran dry, I began to think, “Why is it that people are so suspicious and fearful of us?”
I then wondered if, somewhere, there’s a straight kid who cried himself to sleep because his school started a GSA. I wondered if somewhere, there was another straight kid, with her head hung low; all because she just knows that in the crowd she’s in there’s at least one lesbian there, waiting to infringe upon her rights.
And then I remembered, the ignorant words of my (former) psychiatrist “… it’s not them I don’t like, it’s those parades, and that whole ‘We’re here and we’re better than you’ attitude.” I remembered my classmate’s hateful words. “…Fags don’t care about anything, their only goal is to make everyone else gay, and ruin families…” (What has someone my age seen or heard, that would make them think like that?)
And then I asked myself, are we truly that frightening? Maybe, just maybe, we are scary. We are a group who can exist within any group of peoples, regardless of nationality or origin, undetected. Maybe if one day, we just got together, and got freaking organized we could poise a legitimate threat to them. I asked myself, do they know how scary they are to us?
And then I realized, this persecution complex those who fear us harbor is a natural product of a lack of understanding. We are all Heterophobic. And it is our fear of difference that controls us, hinders us, and will destroy us. It is hard to face something, and even harder to accept something we don’t understand. In days gone by, this would have been acceptable as an excuse, but today it is not. Our generation has been given the ultimate tool to communicate and the chance to freaking understand the entire World. It’s just oh so comfortable to stay afraid, and find others who share our fears, rather than improve ourselves and the freaking world.
And then,
I cried.
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