Marchin in a Gay Pride Parade.

Title says it all. :P Figured i'd make the post cos it involves a topic that many of you may be interested in. (;

So there was a state gay pride parade in Melbourne today. Me and my gay youth group went up there, and with our banner, participated in the march, under the boiling hot sun. @_@

There had to have been thousands of people there to watch or take part in the parade. And boy, there were all types under the sun up there in Melbourne, under the hot sun.

For a 'small-town boy' like myself it was quite surreal. Every stereotypical queer and queer-related person you could imagine was in eyesight at all times. I'm talking about tall drag queens in bright, flashy outfits, short-haired dykes and their bulky motorbikes, old guys in leather (and tight, bottomless pants x_x), slender tanned twinks in only tight shiny underwear, enthusiastic mothers clad in all the colours of the rainbow, and emo boys in black tops and low-rising jeans with, if i may say so myself, very nommable hair.

It was the largest collection of eye-candy and eye-sores i've ever witnessed. I've never seen so many cute boys in the same place before. And the funniest thing is, most of em like cock. :P It was so... strange to see so many openly gay/bi people in the one spot, or even openly gay people at all, for me.

It was the longest day i've had in ages, and it was the first experience of its kind for me, and quite an eye-opening one at that.

And i acquired a raging sunburn to remember.

M-Boy's Verdict on Stereotypes.

Oh...

Well, i opened this can of worms/bag of snakes/or some other better metaphor...

so i'll try to wrap it up, the best way that a 15yo kid can... :P

Let me first say, before you all get angry at me, that this is just MY opinion, and i'm not the most in-the-know about this. I'm still going to say it though...

I KNOW some of you will disagree with me, and that's what makes this so much FUN!!



We know that gays aren't portrayed in the most positive of lights in the form of the media.

Perhaps that's our own fault.

We literally parade ourselves,

then we try to say that there's nothing different between us and the 'straights'.

There is a stereotype out there, and we know it, that all gays are massive flamers.

We perpetuate that myth ourselves, especially in our stereotype pride parades.

The stereotype is THERE.

We need to CRUSH IT.



We are NOT ALL massive flamers. We are all DIFFERENT.

And because we are so different, that's what makes us NORMAL.

Soft twinks, hairy bears, flamers, queens, butch or effeminate, the muscly macho men, the dancers, the hairdressers and the make-up artists.

That is what we are seen as.

Yes, some of us do fit into that, but i think that the majority of us do not. And yet that is how we are represented.

So, i say we stop enabling these stereotypes.

Bring on the gay accountants! And policemen/women, journalists, sportspeople, computer geeks, emos, chefs, farmers, scientists, butchers, doctors, dentists, lawyers, and whatever the fuck else you can think of, because in all fucking honesty, we as a group are no different than everyone else, because we're all different!

Why must we continue to feel we have to conform to this? Is it because we so desperately want to show that we are proud, that we will get so in-your-face? That we wave our bright flags to show we're not ashamed?

All that's done has created and reinforced a fairly negative stereotype (that is the butt of jokes), and that has made more people fall into it... myself included...



I don't even know why. I just know that one day i DECIDED that my favourite colour would be pink, and i would watch modelling shows and care about 'gay stuff'... and i never looked back.

I did that, because i was gay, and i wanted to show it.

Whether or not that is the true me, i don't know, i never will know, but there's no turning back now.



Gay is flamboyant. Gay is soft. Gay is weak.

Gay has been stereotyped.

We can't let it go on. We need to show that we are just 'normal' people, and that our ONLY difference is that fact that we are same-sex attracted. Nothing else should go with that, just our sexuality. Because not all gays have a fashion sense and love Pop music.

Unlike our sexuality, i believe that who we are is a CHOICE, or can at least be influenced.



We should not be pigeonholed into something that we are not.

We should be free to be whoever the fuck we want to be, and not feel we have to conform!

So perhaps the day that we stop fucking ourselves around with this stereotype, will be the day that we earn some respect in the rest of the world.



Now, bitch at me all you want! Cos i'm going to my bedroom to watch the episode of Will & Grace i taped earlier today.

And do not say that i am homophobic, because I AM GAYER THAN YOU.


See you tomorrow. Set me straight in the comments until then.

love you ALL, from the flamers to the miners,

===>mirrorboy<===