What do you think about pride month?

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[–]Ambisextrous 40 insightful - 1 fun40 insightful - 0 fun41 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I wish it was LGB pride like what it started as, not a fetish parade.

[–]Smolders1Cock is god's greatest gift. 29 insightful - 2 fun29 insightful - 1 fun30 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

TRA's and the trans community centre it around themselves as usual. Rarely ever any representation for actual homosexuals and bisexuals. Not a fan. More discrimination arises from it rather than acceptance and toleration.

[–]ArthnoldManacatsaman🇬🇧🌳🟦 29 insightful - 2 fun29 insightful - 1 fun30 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I can't really add anything that hasn't been said here already, but opinions are free on the internet, so here we go.

  • I have never been to a pride parade, but when I see people parading around in fetish gear it makes me distinctly uncomfortable. Hasn't the LGB community spent decades trying to convince the general public that we aren't sexual deviants? Of course what consenting adults get up to behind closed doors is their own affair, but the classic 'I'm not homophobic but don't shove it down my throat' rings true when men are wandering around in jockstraps and those awful, creepy dog masks.

  • It has become diluted by all the gender nonsense. All these made up genders and sexualities read like a right-wing parody of what people think the LGB movement is about, and yet the truth is stranger than fiction. 'Grey Asexual demi-girl day of visibility'? Piss off and go back to Tumblr.

  • Corporate pandering makes the whole thing seem hollow. I'm not stupid enough to think that a trillion pound global financial services group actually cares about me and any issues I face, they just want me to think 'Ooh, Lloyds has a rainbow now, gosh, how relatable, maybe I'll bank with them now' and I get quite annoyed by the naive idiots who want more corporate woke virtual signalling. 'Microsoft hasn't released a statement in support of BLM!? Outrageous. Boycotting immediately.'

  • Finally, and perhaps most controversially, I don't think pride month is necessary. Being LGB is not as integral a part of my identity as people want it to be. Without sounding like a failed high-school poet, my identity and my sense of who I am is incredibly complex and built on many different pillars. I don't feel particularly 'proud' of being homosexual any more than I feel proud of being born where I was born, or speaking the language that I speak.

[–]CJLez 14 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 0 fun15 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Corporate pandering makes the whole thing seem hollow. I'm not stupid enough to think that a trillion pound global financial services group actually cares about me and any issues I face, they just want me to think 'Ooh, Lloyds has a rainbow now, gosh, how relatable, maybe I'll bank with them now'

The most annoying part for me are that people fall for this. You have corporations like Blizzard who will go all-out celebrating pride in countries like the US but literally change the sexualities of their characters to make them straight in countries like Russia and people will praise them for how wonderful they are for celebrating the 'queer community'.

If the pendulum somehow swung so severely that being LGB in the US was considered deviant by the majority population again you can bet these corporations would never turn up at a pride march again. Mind you, neither would 90% of the participats.

[–]fuck_reddit 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Who was it also, Bethesda? that changed all their logos to the rainbow flag except their Middle East and either Russia or Africa branches. Like performative woeness to the extreme.

[–]SeasideLimbs 19 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 0 fun20 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Couldn't care less about it. There may have been a point to it long ago when it was to draw much-needed attention to LGB issues. But the issues LGB people (in the west, at least) struggle with the most today are honestly exactly the ones pride month itself is pushing. So if anything, pride month is anti-LGB in my book, at least practically. Not everyone who celebrates it is anti-LGB obviously, but what pride month is actually accomplishing now is anti-LGB measures like transing LGB children, normalizing homophobic concepts like "genital fetishism," normalizing straight men invading lesbian women's spaces (and vice versa,) etc. Other than that, it's now just a competition to see which soulless billion-dollar company can pretend to be in support of us the most.

[–]yousaythosethingsFind and Replace "gatekeeping" with "having boundaries" 18 insightful - 1 fun18 insightful - 0 fun19 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don’t like how Pride month is being handled. I haven’t seen it used to educate the public about the history of gay rights at all or even on trans issues since the trans activists don’t actually want any studies on trans issues.

The way Pride is being handled contributes to the sense that the LGB+WTF community is a big social club that you’re either in or out and that people should want to try to find a backdoor in to feel special and like they have a purpose.

I just want to be left alone to love women and not be defined by that. I want people to understand that being gay isn’t a feeling. It just means that like the vast majority of the population, we feel attraction but that it is to the same sex (and in the case of bisexuals both sexes), and that this feels normal and natural to us just like opposite sex attraction feels to them. Pride is working against this entirely and making it all about personal truth and identity. I hate that.

I saw some supposed gay man who is a TRA rail against LGB Alliance harming the community but when asked how, all he could say was “what did they do for Pride month” as if that should be a primary concern for a nascent organization fighting for its right to exist.

[–]artetolife 16 insightful - 1 fun16 insightful - 0 fun17 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Pride isn't so tied to a month here, but I dislike how all the events have become so corporate. Last time I went the entire parade was just advertising for banks, chicken restaurants, the police... anything but anything to do with LGBT.

[–][deleted] 14 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 0 fun15 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

it's pointless. if we want to be seen as normal we should treat our sexuality the same way straight people do, don't bring it up and don't have entire parades dedicated to it. it's even worse when you have people going around in fetish gear or naked doing nasty shit out of "pride" for their sexuality. pride month isn't even about us anymore anyway, the trans toddlers made it all about themselves because they're attention whores.

[–]KCStuffedAnimal 14 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 0 fun15 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's good to remember what Gay Pride was originally all about: Reducing shame among Lesbians and Gay men, which was a huge problem back in the day, creating safe space when we were still routinely targeted by the police, blackmailers, etcetera, and urging people to come out in the sunshine and let a world that thought we were creepy see how normal we were. It was a good idea that helped normalize being a same-gender-loving person and showed closeted folks that they weren't alone. I can't overestimate the positive effect those parades had in the early years.

That said, Gay Pride has evolved into "Pride", a corporate-sponsored freak show, entertainment venue and bacchanal that has lost nearly all of its original meaning and increasingly isn't about Gay people at all. The parades and festivals no longer serve a useful purpose for us. I don't expect them to disappear anytime soon, but clearly the number of serious-minded Lesbians, Bi and Gay folk involved is going to diminish; and even if we want to continue being part of the festivities, we're getting pushed out!

Yet despite how much more open we've become, I think shame about one's sexual orientation is still a big problem, especially in religious and ethnic communities. Pride month, if it's understood to be Lesbian and Gay Pride month, can still be useful as an education and consciousness-raising tool. We need to somehow target those aforementioned religious communities and address the lethal forms of persecution that still exist outside the United States.

[–]7of99 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The next time I'm going I'm going with a sign saying something about how there's no shame in only being attracted to the same sex, only pithier. A lot of shame about homosexuality is being pushed on gay youth within these alphabet soup groups, too, and for LGB people coming from unaccepting environments seeing that as the only alternative where acceptance is possible, a lot are susceptible to that kind of guilt trip and social pressure.

[–]KCStuffedAnimal 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I come from the Black community where gender roles have always been very rigid, despite what it may look like to an outsider. It's still difficult for Gay Black kids to come out and be fully accepted by their families, especially if they're religious: most of the Black churches are as homophobic as ever. I can see butch girls or nelly-acting boys feeling a lot of pressure to change. Gender transition might appeal to them as a way to conform to expectations; although, as we know, there are people who would never accept their transition as valid. They'd most likely find themselves ostracized in a different way.

[–]haveanicedaytoo💗💜💙 11 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I liked going to the pride parade when I was younger because it was a great way to check out new girls that I wouldn't normally get to see. (Of course way too many straight girls and non-single girls there as well, but whatever. It was still nice being able to see my options.) I know not everyone treats pride like a meat-market, (or at least they don't admit that part out loud) but for me that was a huge part of attending. Also it was fun going as a group with friends/acquaintances and dressing up and cheering and waving flags together, especially when you're closeted for huge chunks of your day-to-day life. It gives you a different kind of energy when you know the parade is all about you and your team and you are safe there. No one will harm you or spread gossip about you or try to ruin your life just because you're bi.

Having an entire month for pride serves no purpose for me. I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing that entire month that is different from what I usually do. People don't forget LGB people exist the other 364 days of the year. Who benefits from pride month? No, really, that's the question: Who benefits from pride month?

[–]Gearbeta 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There are way too much people with fetishes there. Last pride I went to was a couple of years ago and it was super fun, got to meet a bunch of cool people and I got to make out with a girl but there was literally a float for furries, dudes running around in puppy play gear, and straight dudes trying to hit on lesbians. Yeah, so get rid of the creeps and it'll be good again.

[–]notdelusionalbased faggot 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The primary reason we marched in parades was to bring visibility. The visibility has been largely achieved, therefore scolding the public with messages of "love is love" for an entire month comes across as unnecessarily provocative. It has now become a virtue signaling exercise for government, institutions, and corporations.

[–][deleted] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

With everything going on it's been ruined for me.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I wish we could just have a week like before, a month is too much social engagement, I was good with a weekend, tbh

[–]hermiona52 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's important, but I live in Poland - one of the most homophobic countries in Europe, so you know...

[–]Ossidiana 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's outdated. It made a lot of sense when it first was invented. Now it's only a fetish parade.

[–]RedditVihaaLesboja 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

We only have a Pride week, not a full month. 10 years ago it felt very important to me, it was about what Pride originally is - being gay is ok, we want equal rights too, you're not alone. Pride in surviving growing up in a homophobic society. Attendance was usually 5-15k depending on the year.

Flashforward 10 years, attendance has skyrocketed to 30-50k, it's all about the TQ now. Stands for LGBT orgs have been replaced by political parties and other ones that can afford the fee. Corporate sponsorship is everywhere with only a few actually donating to the causes (shoutout to Finlayson for actually donating to help gay people in Chechnya a few years back). There's no lesbian-only events or programs, barely any for gay men either (at least they get to have their own party and not a party for "women and everyone supporting them"). Pride month genuinely makes me feel more depressed and suicidal than any other month because it hightens the homophobia from the TQ community, if I had 1€ for every time I've heard or read "shut up cis gays, you already got your rights"...

Tl;dr: ruined by the tq just like everything else, have stopped going

[–]BiHorror 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's okay... Never celebrated it. One time I did want to go to the parades but... They have so much kink/fetish related shit now. Like, wasn't the point to show others we WEREN'T sexual deviants? It irks me when they have children there like ??? Why? Then there's also the busineses getting all buddy buddy for money and support from LGB. I don't think it should be an whole month tho. I'm ain't gonna be celebrating for a whole month, my sexuality is not special.

[–]witchdicktor 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's nice that often there is a (small) push of LGBT topics and content during the month but even that is becoming more TQ+ oriented. Otherwise I don't really care.