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Every woman 's J-Jca 11 li
501 N Graham #445 • Portland Or 97227
Should Portland continue to hold the
Pride Parade and Festival? If so, how do
you plan to help make it happen?
he Pride Parade and Festival is more impor
tant now than ever. As we know too well,
we’ve suffered one sethack after another in
courts and elections, so many that it’s difficult
sometimes to remember that ours is a lively
community with a lot to offer. Even so, we’re
now second-class citizens under our own state
constitution. Those who voted to make us so
would he delighted to see us disappear, fold our
little rainbow tent and get into the closet with
it.
We must never accept the gay version of sit
ting at the back of the bus. We must never
assimilate so completely into the mainstream
that we lose our identity as a culture. Separate
may never be equal, but there’s something to be
said for remaining distinct. And that just might
mean that once a year, we parade outrageous
drag queens, bare-breasted women on motor
cycles and hot gay boys dancing in short shorts
through the downtown streets.
The Pride tradition is 35 years old and grow
ing worldwide. If we must increase admission
fees, hold fund-raisers or have a damn bake sale,
let’s do it. But now is not the time to let Pride
die in Portland.
T
P atricia H ansen
Portland
• • •
h, the thorny issue of putting together the
annual Pride celebration. Some thoughts
on the subject....
I had just turned 16 when the Stonewall riots
tixik place; 1 knew it was important then, and I
A
think it’s important now. But every year I see
Pride celebrations across the country (and the
world) becoming more and more distanced from
that seminal event. Perhaps if we hadn’t lost an
entire generation of gay men and women....
1 remember when the L.A. celebration was a
dozen very nervous men walking down Holly-
wcxxl Boulevard with a police escort. I watched
the
it grow into the huge event that now takes over
West Hollywood, then 1 moved to San Francis
co and watched it snowball into a phenomenon
that attracts millions of people to the City by
the Bay.
Now 1 live here, and during the past few
years I’ve seen this same celebration wither on
the vine until it’s now a question of whether its
“worth” even attempting. Hie answer, of course,
is a resounding YES!
While there are certainly issues to be
addressed, I feel that one of the primary answers
is to refocus the event on exactly what it is we’re
commemorating. (I would recommend Harvey
Cox’s brilliant Feast of Fools to anyone contem
plating the nature and need of festivity in our
lives and celebrations.) It’s not just an excuse for
public drinking and semi-nudity (while delight
ful in and of themselves), it’s the very heart and
soul of our being in the world.
Secondly, we need to return to gathering as a
tribe and celebrating together. While we cele
brate our diversity, we should discontinue the
fracturing and separateness that has become
commonplace; one parade, one festival might
help lead to one community. No more separate
parade for this group or a different festival for
that group; isn’t the whole point supposed to be
about bringing us together? Those early celebra
tions were certainly not about gender identifica
tion, age group, body type or sexual fetish; all
that came later. The only “qualification” need
ed was to be queer. Couldn’t we, for one day, all
join hands instead of playing in different sand
boxes? Don’t we like each other enough?
And finally, we need to find out what it is
the celebrants want for their special day. Every
year, fewer and fewer of my friends attend at all,
with the excuse “there’s nothing there for me.”
What a terrible thing for a gay person to feel
about Pride! There needs to he a concerted
effort to reach the people who don’t attend and
find out why. Frankly, these are people who are
not going to appear at a committee meeting to
voice their opinions; they might, however, mail
in a questionnaire they find in the local queer
newspaper (hint, hint) or as a flier in a queer
business.
Personally, 1 wish the festival was something
special. Last year, 1 was confronted with an
empty field of dead grass, unmanned booths
with little import and a very loud lady with a
bullhorn haranguing people (who had already
paid their fee) about just how much it costs to
rent port-a-potties. This year...no thanks. Why
is there no his/herstory pavilion? Why is there
no representation of queer art anywhere? (We’re
a very creative people, you know.) Why is there
no dance floor? Or strolling entertainment?
Where is the color and life and excitement?
(“Better vegan cuisine” would be way down on
iny list of priorities.) While comparisons are
unfair, Pride could take a gcxxJ kx>k at the Ore
gon Country Fair. They’ve been making it work
for 36 years.
These are just ruminations. I have no
answers. 1 understand that this event takes lots
of planning, lots of money, lots of time and lots
of bodies, all of which are forever at a premium.
But I know that this event is very important and
that the people who put the effort forth are
unsung heroes. But at the same time, 1 believe
the resources of Portland (including every gay
man and woman) could he put to better, more
celebratory use.
D onald F inch
Portland
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