World Pride

I'm breaking with my usual tradition of avoiding Pride like the plague and attending this year. I stopped going to the Toronto Pride festivities because I felt that it gave gay people a bad name. Every year people try and out shock each other and it does nothing to bolster the image that gay people are normal. Now I am no prude by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel there is a time and a place for some of the behaviour that takes place there. The police don't do anything because they don't want to cause riots, but when your actions become above the law because of fear and not because of injustice there is something terribly wrong with that. Our message is that we are people too and we are tired of being oppressed, but our actions say look at me I can have sex in public and not be arrested. When our actions and words are not congruent we loose our point. This is the reason that I avoid the parade. The heat or the amount of people or even the skyrocketed price of hydration I can tolerate, but I just can't support the bad behaviour that gets photographed and displayed every year for the right wing conservatives to use as ammunition. So why am I going this year one may ask? Regardless of my personal beliefs of the parade, it is world Pride. It is probably the only opportunity I will ever get to attend an event such as this, and I'm also going because so many of the people in this world can't. In a world where loving a person of the same sex can be condemned by death and legalized rape I have to go for those people who can't. I've had my own battles with homophobia, even in Canada where our rights are solidified prejudices and hatred still live on, but it is nothing compared to the daily risk that some gay individuals experience just for being brave enough to be themselves. So I go this year with the hope that I will be pleasantly surprised and who knows maybe I will meet the love of my life there.  Incidentally, I really REALLY like that tattoo and want it!