STUFF & THINGS

BY JON TAYLOR

Pride and Protest

Pride. Pride... So much has been written about Pride. What can you say that hasn't been said before? What would be a new and dynamic thing to say? 'The need for Pride'? Others, I'm sure, will cover that. 'What Pride means to me?' Done that already. 'The Politics of Pride'? Not really my thing.

So let's look at the event itself. What have the themes been of Pride over the years... perhaps there's something in that? ‘Over The Rainbow’. ‘Fabuloso’. ‘Generations Of Love’. ‘Colour My World’. ‘Summer Of Love’. Hmmmm... all those tell me is that we could do with some more interesting and less generic themes. How's about ‘Nature’, ‘Food’, or ‘That Feeling At A Bar When You Realise That You're A Bit Older Than Everyone Else There’. That'd make things interesting.

“My gay friends are just normal blokes, doing their normal jobs, living their normal lives who may go down the pub with their mates at the weekend. They don’t wear feathers, they don’t do cocaine, they don’t say ‘Yaaaaas Queen’. They're just blokes”

Struggling for an idea, I inquire of my Facebook friends as to what they’d write about. “Why don't you write about what doesn’t make you proud as a gay man?” suggests one of them. Not a bad idea but not sure if a little column about body shaming, ageism, wealth shaming and the drink and drugs-based culture of parts of the gay world is particular coffee-break reading material.

How’s about taking another bastion of gay entertainment, Eurovision, and putting it together with Pride and see if there’s a link somewhere? So, let’s see what won the contest in the year that 1944 won for the Ukraine, a song concerning the deportation of the Crimean Taters at the hands of Joseph Stalin. The Brighton & Hove Pride theme that year was ‘Uniting Nations’. Hmmm. Perhaps not.

“[Pride] could do with some more interesting and less generic themes. How's about ‘Nature’, ‘Food’, or ‘That Feeling At A Bar When You Realise That You're A Bit Older Than Everyone Else There’. That’d make things interesting”

Another friend might have hit upon an excellent theme for a Pride one year. ‘Normal Men’. He's made the point that Pride tends to cater for a typical expression of what being gay is. Namely being full of sparkles and neon and crop tops and thumping dance music. How many guys do you know who are like this and live their lives like this? I don't know any. My gay friends are just normal blokes, doing their normal jobs, living their normal lives, who may go down the pub with their mates at the weekend.

They don’t wear feathers, they don’t do cocaine, they don’t say ‘Yaaaaas Queen’. They're just blokes. We do all kind of fall into this trap at Pride – the floats I’ve been on are always over-the-top affairs full of glitter. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. It’s fun to dress up and show off a bit. But how’s about one year we take things down a notch or two? How’s about a pared-down Pride? A ‘Come As You Are’ Pride? For some, simply rocking up to walk in the Pride parade is a huge statement. How much easier might it be for some to take part if they didn’t feel they had to wear angel wings on their back in order to do so?