{"id":391,"date":"2004-06-24T10:28:36","date_gmt":"2004-06-24T14:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2004\/06\/24\/tis-the-seasonto-wear-our-gay-apparel-f"},"modified":"2004-06-24T10:28:36","modified_gmt":"2004-06-24T14:28:36","slug":"tis-the-seasonto-wear-our-gay-apparel-fa-la-la-la-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2004\/06\/24\/tis-the-seasonto-wear-our-gay-apparel-fa-la-la-la-la\/","title":{"rendered":"Tis the Season…To Wear Our Gay Apparel.. Fa La La La La"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It’s June. That means that it is unofficially Gay Pride Month (it used to be more official when our previous president recognized it…but it’s still Gay Pride Month all the same). <\/P>
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One thing I don’t understand, however, are people’s reactions to it – even within the gay community. This whole celebration started 35 years ago in New York City when policed raided a gay bar because, well, the patrons were being themselves. Some were in drag, some were effeminite, others were just gay, bi, or curious. The patrons fought back and the Stonewall Riots became history. This was, in essence, the gay version of the shot(glass) heard ’round the world.<\/P>
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So why is it that every year around this time – you hear gay people say “I wish all of those drag queens and leather freaks would tone it down…they’re just setting our movement back” or “You just know that the media is going to focus on those idiots.” <\/P>
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You can hear those comments on the street and, inevitably, even in the gay press. And this infuriates me. Do people not recall that the whole point of this celebration is PRIDE! It’s about being who you are. It’s about having just one day a year where you can be in public and have fun without fear of attack. It should be about liberation, not repression.<\/P>
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If your fear is honestly that the drag queens and leatherman\/women are portraying gays in a bad light, look no further than this picture (one that I’ve posted previously):<\/P>
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\"\"<\/P>
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This is a straight man. This is proof that the media does not focus on gay people as freaks. They are equal opportunity offenders. As long as it makes them money, they’ll photograph it and report on it.<\/P>
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So lighten up everybody. Be yourself…and let everybody else around you be themselves, too. And if you’re so concerned with the media focusing on the so-called “freaks”, then instead of turning away from the camera when you see the local news reporters, run up to the camera and make yourself known.<\/P>
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 <\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s June. That means that it is unofficially Gay Pride Month (it used to be more official when our previous president recognized it…but it’s still Gay Pride Month all the same). One thing I don’t understand, however, are people’s reactions to it – even within the gay community. This whole celebration started 35 years ago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}