I have been involved in Gay Pride for almost as long as I have been involved in BDSM. Gay Pride weekend (in Montreal) usually was the last big event of the summer for me - they hold their weekend in August.
A few years ago they changed the name from Gay Pride to Divercite/Diversity... to allow all the alternate lifestyles to participate. Montreal's Pride - like so many other big cities was a crush of parties and people and drinking (and yeah drugs too). It was a sea of bare breasts - all sizes, shapes and ages (dear god - AGES!!! some breasts just shouldn't be exposed to public viewing!! and W wonders why I keep mine covered and bound up in bras!!! - well at least in public) It was a sea of males in leather chaps with their ass cheeks hanging out. In short it was (IMHO) an effort to shock the straight community. And they succeeded.
At one point in Montreal there was a plea sent out to the masses to try and keep Pride low key - to have more "normal" families ... to have business men/women.. to have clergy.. to try and show the world that being homosexual didn't always mean outlandish or outrageous. It didn't much work.
Anyway................
I noticed - in one of the events listings that I get - that Kingston was holding their Gay Pride celebrations this past weekend. That they were celebrating 25 years!
I mentioned it to a few younger folk at a recent munch... asking if they were going to attend, Their reaction was shocking to me. They made it quite clear that they wouldn't have anything to do with those freaks! WTF??!! I honestly had hoped that the younger folk might have evolved into a more accepting/inclusive bunch. Wrong!!! And the thing that screamed at me - here were folks who do some of the most perverted (by definition) acts - compared to homosexual couples - more freakish by vanilla standards than even homosexuals - being prejudiced against gay folk AND calling them 'freaks'! It was beyond my comprehension.
Anyway W and I decided to go down and see Kingston's Gay Pride on Sunday. They had a fair going and the parade was scheduled to be at 1:00. Now neither W nor I were expecting anything compared to Montreal .............. but what we saw was wonderful!
It looked like a family day at the park. There were children running around - there were bubbles being given out to all children (big and small) and one group had mixed up BIG bubble mixes and were blowing the most amazing bubbles - and the children were running around popping them...............
There were "furries" there playing with the children (now mind you - I have always thought "furries" were more on our side of the ledger - but HEY! why not).......
There were the cross dressers...............
and butterflies....
and teenagers.........
there were kids in wagons.........
and pets in arms..........
even the Kingston police got into the spirit of the Parade.............
and there wasn't one bare breast or bare ass........................
and at the end of our time at the park we had gourmet hotdogs in the shade. (if anyone is interested I had a Seattle Grunge hotdog and W had an Hawaii 5 0)
W put it best in his description of Kingston's Gay Pride "It might not be as big as Montreal or Toronto - but it had a BIG spirit!"
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