Stories from a man who fails to meet media expectations of what it means to be gay:
white, frivolous, over sexed yet sexless, shrill, single, stylish, a clown, unimportant, et al.

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Long Beach Pride Part 2, that is, a few more semi-related stories from a day of gay debauchery*

1) Got to talk to a friend of mine I almost never see anymore from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. He was on the job, or on the clock, or whatever the proper term is for when they're in their habits, so conversation was little more than �Hey Hi! Long time no see!� As usual, he couldn�t stand still for more a few seconds before being swarmed by festivalgoers wanting photographs.

2) We either hit the dance tents at unusual moments, or the various DJ�s playing had liberal definitions of music. They were playing Cumbias in the big �Disco� Dance tent, House at the Hip-Hop tent, and ABBA (in English!) at the Latin Music tent. Not that I really minded, �cause dancing to Dancing Queen in the middle of a crowd of screaming would be Macho queens is always fun. Although it did seem to confuse many of the beer-drinking folks milling around outside of the tents who had no idea where it was they wanted to be.

We joked that the music choices were designed to promote festival circulation and increase beer consumption, since all the beer tents just happened to be placed near the dance tents.

3) Despite the propaganda, the low slung jeans and visible thong look is not a good look on women. It�s even worse on men.

4) When the parade started, the crowd of spectators lining the sidewalks heard the roar of engines and started yelling out their approval, only to stop when we all saw that was a group on motorcycles, not women. Their bikes were so loud I don�t think the riders heard all the folks yelling out �Where�s the Dykes!�

I was told later that the parade organizers decided to alternate each year who starts the parade, dykes on bikes or men on motorcycles. An attempt at gender parity I guess, though I doubt it was really necessary, and from the crowd�s reaction, not that appreciated.

Once the men rolled by, Women came roaring into view, which was when the crowd got happy and hooted �n hollered their approval. Some folks are just traditionalists. ;)

5) At one point we were with some friends who were all teachers. Interestingly, it seems that in at least two different high schools, gay-straight alliance student groups are on the verge of dissolving because of indifference. The administrators are supportive and want the groups, no parents are really complaining, and there are plenty of teachers willing to be advisors, the problem is the students. They don�t really care that much anymore.

As one of the teachers put it, the gay kids at his school would rather spend their time hanging out with their friends than at a meeting talking about the need for tolerance and equal rights, and the straight kids, well what�s the point of going to a straight/gay alliance if everyone there is straight?

At these schools there are no cliques of kids who are friends mainly because of their sexual orientation (as in books like Geometry Club), instead the usual gangs of nerds, preppy kids, punks, Goths and such have openly gay kids and no one cares. The entire �Gay� thing is seen as not that big a deal (�yeah, some of my friends are gay, so what?�), and the concept of a �safe� space to be open about yourself seems old fashioned and unnecessary to them.

There�s still so much homophobia and prejudice going in the world that it feels off somehow that the kids don�t think that such student groups are necessary anymore. Of course, that is the point there, it �feels� strange to me, but I�m not a high school kid dealing with their circumstances. If the groups aren�t meeting their needs, than maybe it is a good thing to let them die.

Rights advocacy groups, student or otherwise closing shop due to wide acceptance and success is a novel and from my jaded view point a shocking concept. If only the rest of the nation, specifically the conservative elements of our government, could be so enlightened as our youth.

More later,
Nico

*OK, not so much debauchery, since me being me, all I did was hang out with friends and dance a little.

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