Originally Posted By peeaanuut << an unpaid volunteer engineer would first be sought to drive the truck. That failing, a volunteer would be paid four hours' overtime.>> Hmmm volunteer and not get paid or get paid overtime? yeah, not a hard decision there.
Originally Posted By Mr X I agree entirely with your post, Jon, except to say that I think you should have written "SOME homosexuals in the crowd"...because as we all know the vocal minority doesn't speak for the majority (and the majority, I think, attend for public awareness and to have a good time).
Originally Posted By jonvn Yes, you could say some, not all. But I've been to the SF parade, and it's very bizarre. I think most people can see the sex aspect and deal with that ok, but it's the rest of the behavior that people find disturbing. If gay people were just like straight people but just had sex differently, I don't think it'd be a big deal. But when you see a parade float that is a 40 foot long double ended phallus, then that's going to really send a message of emotional instability to most people, who simply do not behave that way regarding their sexual activity.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>But when you see a parade float that is a 40 foot long double ended phallus, then that's going to really send a message of emotional instability to most people, who simply do not behave that way regarding their sexual activity.<< Take it easy. That was only the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF >>But I've been to the SF parade, and it's very bizarre.<< So, a bunch of big guys wearing fezzes and driving tiny cars and motorcycles isn't bizarre?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I once saw a parade with a couple of giant mice encased in oversized plexiglass snowglobes. Totally freaky, man.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF Seriously, though, I would like to know just what it is you find bizarre. Over 8 years of living in the City, I've either attended the parade in person or watched it on TV. Apart from the usual "weirdness" -- guys in leather, club boys gyrating on floats sponsored by liquor companies, and of course, Dykes on Bikes -- I don't see anything all that bizarre. I see a lot of groups -- gay veterans, gay policemen, gay union members, etc. -- organizations and a fair number of local politicians and celebrities. In short, the stuff that the religious right and neocons love to focus upon makes up a minority of the parade as a whole.
Originally Posted By jonvn "So, a bunch of big guys wearing fezzes and driving tiny cars and motorcycles isn't bizarre?" No one likes them, either.
Originally Posted By jonvn "I would like to know just what it is you find bizarre." It's the overtly sexual nature of the entire proceeding. At least half the people I know are gay, and I have no issue with anyone being gay, but the behavior people see at the parades is very strange, and I don't think helpful. If gay people want to be accepted as part of the community as a whole, they have to act like the community as a whole. And you don't see giant paper mache genitals in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Actually, for that parade, it'd be a giant balloon. Probably a condom. Yes, when we see a giant inflated condom in the Macy's parade, that's when the stuff you see in gay pride parades will be acceptable. Otherwise, it's simply inappropriate and makes gay people look unwell and obsessed.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF Oh, get a grip. >>It's the overtly sexual nature of the entire proceeding.<< But see, this is where we disagree. I don't think the majority is "overtly sexual." Something like Folsom Street Fair, THAT'S overtly sexual. >>Otherwise, it's simply inappropriate and makes gay people look unwell and obsessed.<< Only to the straight people who are SO FOCUSED ON IT.
Originally Posted By jonvn "Oh, get a grip." On what? "I don't think the majority is "overtly sexual." " It doesn't have to be the majority. When one single Macy's parade float is a giant inflatable condom, that won't be the majority of that parade, either. "Only to the straight people who are SO FOCUSED ON IT." No. Straight people do not have parades that celebrate their genitals. At some time in the future, if such a thing starts to happen, then what we see in gay pride parades will be mainstream and not out of line. Until then, it is, and being gay will not be considered normal and mainstream until.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Straight people do not have parades that celebrate their genitals.<< Please. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders appear in parades all the time.
Originally Posted By jonvn Well, that was terrible sentence construction. I mean to say when straight people's parades have sexual content like you see in a gay pride parade, that is when the gay pride parade will be mainstream. Until then, it's not and the behavior exhibited in those parades will be used as evidence for gay people as not quite normal or able to fit in to society. As to the Folsom Street Fair, it just is a more extreme version of what I'm saying. People see this sort of thing, and the only thing they are going to think is that all gay people are emotionally disturbed degenerates. Sorry, but gay people will never be accepted as long as such public displays continue.
Originally Posted By jonvn "The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders appear in parades all the time." Are they holding up a giant vulva?
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF >>No. Straight people do not have parades that celebrate their genitals.<< Go to China sometime.
Originally Posted By jonvn We don't live in China. I'm all for gay rights, gay marriage, whatever. I don't care what people do. But if gay people wish to be accepted as regular mainstream average ordinary people, they have to act it. If they don't, that's fine. But people are not going to want to associate with others who do not act normally. And having homsexual sex is not the part that is not normal. It's the surrounding perceived behaviors.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF Gee whiz, you must think we all have dungeons and bondage equipment in our basements.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <I mean to say when straight people's parades have sexual content like you see in a gay pride parade, that is when the gay pride parade will be mainstream.> You have obviously never been to the Puerto Rican Day parade in NY. As with the gay parade, most people marching are behaving perfectly normally, if often exuberantly. But I saw more presumably straight men and women shaking their barely covered bonbons in that parade than I ever did at a gay pride parade.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF Oh, yeah. I see more nudity at the Bay to Breakers than I ever did at any pride parade, in or out of San Francisco.
