...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

The naked truth: I didn’t go to Toronto’s Pride Day parade this past Sunday, but friends of mine did. They reported that a great time was had by all—the non-hetero community in all its multi-faceted permutations, as well as the straights who came to watch. Now, being a live-and-let-live kind of a gal, I have no particular interest in an individual’s sexual orientation—or disorientation—although I don’t necessarily believe it’s in society’s best interest to make a blooming circus out of it. However, that’s just contrarian, un-P.C. me.  And in Toronto, my birthplace and domicile, that counts as a minority view. For most Torontonians, Pride Day (actually, ten days of events) is a time when my formerly straight-laced burg—“Toronto the Good,” as it used to be called—gets to shed its uptightness in a veritable Mardi Gras of exhibitionism, with piercings, tattoos, dangly bits, and bondage gear galore. And everyone gets to take part in the parade and show how inclusive and un-hung-up they are. Why, look—there’s a float from the Toronto District School Board. Hi guys! Nice to see you could take some time out from deliberating about whether or not to go on strike come fall! And, gadzooks!, isn’t that the Canadian Jewish Congress? Well, everyone knows how inclusive they are—so inclusive that they’re now including Mo Elmasry and Harpoon Siddiqui among their ranks. And blow me down—aren’t those “Israeli Apartheid” marchers? Shalom aleichem, useful idiots, but don’t you think it’s a little, oh, I dunno, perverse to be protesting against the only nation in its region where a gay can actually get married? As opposed to, you know, being stoned to death or hanged from a giant crane for the public’s amusement.

Cutting to the chase: I’m sure many of the fête's attendees experienced an intoxicating sense of freedom. But how many realized that, at the same time they were luxuriating in their liberation, their most fundamental freedom—the freedom to hold a differing opinion, the freedom to be a wise-acre—was in process of suffering another major setback? For, a day after the Pride festivities, our provincial anti-freedom riders were officially accorded broader and even more far-reaching powers.

Seems to me that the Pride kind of freedom is largely a matter of bread and circuses—a diversion that affords an illusion of freedom. Because if you can be persuaded to keep your eyes on the passing parade, you may not notice that even though folks have the freedom to prance around in public in drag or full-blown bondage gear or sans their gotchies—and thus potentially cause someone to take offense  at the sight of an aesthetically-displeasing get-up (or lack thereof)—here in Ontario we have been robbed of the most crucial freedom of all: the freedom to offend with words.  

Posted by: scaramouche at 12:04 | link | comments (2)

Comments:

#1  02 July 2008 - 09:37

 

Scaramouche:

I've lived in Toronto for 29 years, and for 28 of those, have avoided the "Gay Pride Parade" by design. I find the parade's visual assertion that the gay community is represented by depictions of sexual fetishists.

Some friends and their children (from the UK) stayed with my family a few years back. More "liberal" than myself, they scoffed at my perspective on the Parade and hauled themselves and their kids (aged 7, 11, and 13) downtown to watch it. Hours later, they returned quiet and round-eyed. After the kids were all tucked in for the night, my friends confessed that going to see the parade was a huge mistake. Their kids saw WAY too much and - like kids do - had lots of probing questions about various fetishes represented in the Parade and by members of the public. Apparently, explaining "strap-on dildo" to an 11-year-old can be very stressing...

Let's face it. The Gay "pride" parade will NEVER be "family-friendly" and is little more than a celebration of perversion.

I know quite a number of people who are gay, and most stay away from this very profitable "community event" and spend the day gardening, entertaining friends, or otherwise enjoying their lives in the suburbs or inner-city residential neighborhoods.

Anonymous

#2  02 July 2008 - 10:28

 

Normalizing the perverse is a good way to make us think we're "free"--even if we're not.

scaramouche

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