June and PRIDE 2011

June 2011 is a peculiar month. It began with marking the 30th year of HIV/AIDS being in our midst and will end with Pride Festivals and Parade in NYC, SF, NOLA, Minneapolis, Chi town, SEA, OKC, Wichita, and Harlem. The convergence of both markers in my in American life is queer (pun intended). The 4th Sunday of June is most often attributed to the Stonewall Protest/Riot, when a group of drag queens along with other same sex loving people launched the present day gay movement in the US. Pride became a celebration of an uprising, to be no longer subject to police brutality, being treated as an outcast or social pariah.

I recall attending NYC Pride in ‘94 when many in the LGBT community marked 25 years post Stonewall, and coinciding with the anniversary was the Gay Games. What struck me, as the march snaked through Mid-town --the mass of participants appeared like a walking Gap Ad. Most wore the uniform of khaki shorts, faded T’s, baseball caps and not surprisingly made up mainly of mainstream/dominant culture homosexuals and their friends. Though I walked with the Filipino contingent, made up largely of New Yorkers and their visitors, a handful in Drag; the absence of transvestites, transsexuals, Drag Queens and “fringe” members of the broader gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community was noticeable. Most stark was the closing ceremony of the Games, held at Yankee Stadium, as attendees packed trains in the Subway ride to the Bronx, the irony of a ballpark filled with affluent white men did not escape me.

A few years later at Toronto Pride, I was less surprised and anticipated the majority of celebrants being members of the dominant culture/class. Canadians do not strike me as having a conflicted identity around privilege. Different in that encounter was how wide the range of self-expression that were being cultivated. Punks, walked with leather men, mixed with fairies, bears, and transvestites. Float contingents were gender mixed, as well as the pedestrian only areas off Church Street. I capped this trip with a 4th of July celebration with a friend’s family in Jamestown, NY. She and I ventured to Toronto, mainly not wanting to be in San Francisco for Pride festivities, and secondly visit with her parents for the American holiday.

Peculiar and mix are the sentiments I have about this month. Odd in having lived and worked in ground zero of the US side of the Global pandemic; yet still observing the integrative challenges of a movement largely defined by moneyed and powerful men; and perceiving race, class, gender, nationality, in an increasingly divided society will never cease to be the fly in the ointment. HIV and AIDS can be characterized as a disease of disparity.

Wondering aloud, if there is reason for Pride festivals? Do we celebrate our inordinate self-importance, achievements, and advantages when many others are denied their dignity? If however, we mark the 4th Sunday of this month as a community of people who value in ourselves and others self-respect and esteem, use it as building blocks towards a less divided nation, then I can see my mixed feelings as merely passing.