🐱 Kink at Pride debate newest example of straight colonization

Guest Opinion: Kink at Pride debate newest example of straight colonization

Recently, the topic of kink- and fetish-related exhibits at Pride parades has become a flashpoint within the culture war

www.ebar.com

Recently, the topic of kink- and fetish-related exhibits at Pride parades has become a flashpoint within the culture war. Proponents of kink at Pride argue that the marches came out of a place of rejecting straight society's conventions on what is an "allowed" expression of sexuality, and that many of the organizers of early Pride events were also active in the kink and leather communities. Those arguing against the inclusion of kink at Pride often argue that it may alienate straight allies and make them feel uncomfortable, as well as make such events unsafe for children.

To this, I say that I often feel uncomfortable when displays of straight sexuality are shoved down my throat, but I don't feel the need to argue against playing "WAP" on the radio or banning the "Fifty Shades" trilogy from being sold in bookstores. If straight allies are made to feel uncomfortable by seeing kink at Pride, they are more than welcome to examine their own biases that have convinced them that exhibiting queer sexuality is inherently more predatory than the numerous displays of straight sexuality in our culture today. Kink has been an essential part of early queer, and especially gay, culture and, as such, it has much more of a place at Pride events than corporate floats or cops. Pride should not be a zoo for straight people to gawk at "the gays," and it should not cater to people who are not even a part of our community.

Some have also argued that seeing flagrant displays of queer sexuality at Pride parades could turn prospective allies away from our cause. However, if seeing two men in gimp outfits kissing makes you a homophobe, you were never not homophobic. So-called allies need to learn that if your acceptance of a group hinges on them behaving in ways that you agree with, you were never affirming of said group to begin with.

And finally, I would like to address the argument that kink at Pride somehow makes these events unsafe for children. I have seen many straight allies complain that they feel uncomfortable with their children at Pride events due to the presence of kink. But complaining that Pride events can be alienating to children because of this is like saying that bars can be alienating to children, so we should ban alcohol from bars. Pride isn't a come one, come all carnival — it is a figurative riot, — celebrating the actual Stonewall rebellion of 1969 — a celebration of queerness in all of its forms, including those that are not "family-friendly." Perhaps if the straight allies who feel the need to dictate what queer people can and cannot do at their own festivities feel awkward bringing their children to Pride events, they should teach their children the values of tolerance and acceptance daily instead of bringing them to queer events once a year and hoping that staring at us will somehow teach their children that we are human beings worthy of respect and dignity.

Historically, straight society has shunned us, imprisoned us for who we are, and beat us senselessly in the streets, so we made our own cultural constructs separate from it. And now that queerness has managed to attain the bare minimum of cultural cachet, the same people that, 52 years ago, would have been cheering as we were beat with batons and assaulted with fire hoses, now feel that they have the right to dictate what we as queer people can and cannot do at our own events. Mainstream gay culture has already been sanitized enough for a general audience — many Pride floats nowadays include corporate advertisements more than anything coming close to the Stonewall riots. The fact that to some straight allies Pride floats from banks that do business with regimes that execute queer people are fine, but bears and others wearing leather is a step too far is a prime example of why we should ignore the voices calling for the removal of kink at Pride and continue to welcome one of the last bastions of early LGBTQ culture at our celebrations of queerness.

Andrew Kelly is an aspiring journalist and activist. He will be attending San Francisco State University in the fall.

 

[make_it_so]

"How dare you bigots expect me to not act like a sex-crazed pervert in front of small children!"

 

[Exigent Circumcisions]

Pride should not be a zoo for straight people to gawk at "the gays,"

Then be proud of your sinful urges at home, you probable heeb.

 

[UselessIdiot]

Mainstream gay culture has already been sanitized enough for a general audience

That's just insulting all around. Way to reinforce negatives stereotypes! Being attracted to the same sex doesn't automatically make you kinky and hypersexual. Many of us want to fit into mainstream society.

I hate the idea of "gay culture". Just because you share the same sexual orientation has someone else, doesn't mean you have anything in common with them or share the same outlook on life or culture.

 

[Mr. Bung]

That's just insulting all around. Way to reinforce negatives stereotypes! Being attracted to the same sex doesn't automatically make you kinky and hypersexual. Many of us want to fit into mainstream society.

I hate the idea of "gay culture". Just because you share the same sexual orientation has someone else, doesn't mean you have anything in common with them or share the same outlook on life or culture.

If you're not running around with your dick out and trying to poz as many negholes as possible, you're not a true homosexual.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

Timeless and relevant.

 

[Francis York Morgan]

Or maybe, just maybe, I'd rather not have everyone's perception of LGBT people shaped by a bunch of perverts and creeps.

 

[oldTireWater]

Andrew Kelly is an aspiring journalist and activist

Dream big there little faggot,

He will be attending San Francisco State University in the fall

And make your dreams come true.

 

[Bland Crumbs]

Or maybe, just maybe, I'd rather not have everyone's perception of LGBT people shaped by a bunch of perverts and creeps.

Sadly it is way too late.

The fags and dykes should have kept them out a decade ago but they did not and now they are proper fucked because when the pendulum swings back they are getting swept.

 

[Weed Eater]

You know what, fine, I'll play your game.

People who participate in BDSM culture would know the biggest rule of all: consent. Consent from participating parties is extremely important, without consent you do not have kink. From the submissive, to the dominant, even to the people who may just happen to be there in the same room at a BDSM party. Everyone has to give their expressed consent, otherwise yeah the kinksters who want to play have to take their shit to a different room in the party.

Watching two gay men in gimp outfits kissing at a public Pride event should be a red flag to anyone who likes or participates in kink culture. There are plenty of people who do not want that garbage shoved down their throats. Your "pride" as queers should be just that, happy that you are who you are, and that you are having the basic freedoms like anyone else should. You already have and have had the freedom to be a pervert in your home. The moment you make this shit public, no, you do not have the freedom to be a gross fuck.

Nobody applauds the methheads having public sex by an intersection, nobody applauds the DDLG couple wearing kink wear in the mall (even if they aren't half naked like the fags at pride events), so no we aren't going to applaud you sucking each other's cocks on a public street during a parade. Fuck off.

 

[Dysnomia]

To this, I say that I often feel uncomfortable when displays of straight sexuality are shoved down my throat

The fact that you can't get used to it despite the vast majority of humanity being heterosexual is pretty sad. Everywhere you turn you are going to see opposite sex couples.

Even if stupid people stopped taking their kids to Pride events there's such a thing as public decency. If your event is public and outdoors you are exposing uninvolved people to your fetishes and degeneracy. I wouldn't want to look out my window on a nice day and see that stuff.

That's just insulting all around. Way to reinforce negatives stereotypes! Being attracted to the same sex doesn't automatically make you kinky and hypersexual. Many of us want to fit into mainstream society.

I hate the idea of "gay culture". Just because you share the same sexual orientation has someone else, doesn't mean you have anything in common with them or share the same outlook on life or culture.

These people are just attention whores who orgasm at the thought of yearly events that let them be disgusting in public with no real repercussions. Anyone who isn't ok with that is suddenly homophobic.

 

[tehpope]

There are crazy people out there who think gays becoming more domesticated like straights is the downfall of civilization. Seriously. And being deviant is public in sticking it to the squares or some shit.

First, having children is unethical.

Second, families make democracy impossible.

The first can be interpreted two ways. On the one hand, unethical as in devoid of ethics. There is nothing inherently ethical or moral about having children. It's just a random biological process. So random that despite historic levels of information and access to birth control, forty percent of the world's pregnancies are unintentional. On the other hand, unethical as in wrong. I agree with both views, but considering how people are so often told having children is the very purpose of life, I advocate the latter. One can easily argue that it is unethical to bring another human being into this shit world. To conspire to impose a life—with all of its tears, dependency, suffering, violence, cruelty, injustice, poverty and prejudice—upon a totally unknown human being without them having any choice in the matter, right down to their birth bodies, makes one an uncaring person. Especially if one is acting out of boredom, loneliness, or a desire for an indentured caretaker in one's old age. To egotistically presume another person would and should appreciate decades of forced dependency upon you in particular, despite how you surely mismanage so many aspects of your own life just like everyone else, by some ethical standards makes one an irresponsible and manipulative person. A bad person.

As for the second, family social structures make democracy impossible because they are unrescuable from the problems of human ownership, coerced labor, sexual fascism, gender segregation, and gender exploitation. This is particularly true of patriarchal families, although not limited to them. Since patriarchal families perpetually dominate post-agrarian social relations, all democratic or egalitarian projects past, present and future are already compromised beyond realization. This fact contradicts typical associations of democracy with continual emergence, growth and springtime. However, pragmatically they can only be projects of collapse.

Those are our starting points. Having children is unethical. Families make democracy impossible. They are not up for debate. They are simply dynamics of this world of breeding and families. Absorb them for a moment. Pause your urge to interject exceptions, in all likelihood defensively starting with your own family. Consider the impulse to immediately contradict and complicate these ideas as a socially conditioned response. One that keeps you, me, and all of us from being able to critically analyze the cultural primacy of breeding and families. Invert the knee-jerk tendency to insist miserable and violent families are the exception, and happy homes the rule. Develop empathy.

Terre Thaemlitz - Writings - Terre Thaemlitz 'Deproduction / 不産主義'

A new computer music album by Terre Thaemlitz critiquing family and breeding, 'Deproduction / 不産主義' (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2017) C.027.

www.comatonse.com

 

[Penis Drager]

Or maybe, just maybe, I'd rather not have everyone's perception of LGBT people shaped by a bunch of perverts and creeps.

I mean, the shoe fits...

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

There are crazy people out there who think gays becoming more domesticated like straights is the downfall of civilization. Seriously. And being deviant is public in sticking it to the squares or some shit.

Terre Thaemlitz - Writings - Terre Thaemlitz 'Deproduction / 不産主義'

A new computer music album by Terre Thaemlitz critiquing family and breeding, 'Deproduction / 不産主義' (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2017) C.027.

www.comatonse.com

Whoever wrote that is a Death Cultists and you cannot change my mind.

They might wrap it up in sugary language and bleat about empathy, but they're a death cultist. Plain and simple.

 

[GreenJacket]

False dialectic here:
A. "I like fags, but not the fags who act like fags"
B. "Fags should be allowed to act like fags especially around children"

I, of course, want 'pride' to be banned.

 

[Samir]

Some have also argued that seeing flagrant displays of queer sexuality at Pride parades could turn prospective allies away from our cause. However, if seeing two men in gimp outfits kissing makes you a homophobe, you were never not homophobic.

So, is this satirical? I refuse to believe that a human wrote this sentence out and didn't see how ridiculous it was.

 

[Apotheosis of the Liver]

Those arguing against the inclusion of kink at Pride often argue that it may alienate straight allies and make them feel uncomfortable, as well as make such events unsafe for children.

I don' think the fags need help making it unsafe for children

 

[Salubrious]

To this, I say that I often feel uncomfortable when displays of straight sexuality are shoved down my throat, but I don't feel the need to argue against playing "WAP" on the radio or banning the "Fifty Shades" trilogy from being sold in bookstores.

The great irony of this entire article is that most of the people that hate seeing kink displayed in public also hate WAP and 50 Shades as well, so the author has no idea and/or doesn't actually care about what the other side really thinks. Which isn't surprising at all, but still.

 

[Tovarisz]

I like to say that there are gays and there are faggots. The former just likes other dudes a lot and you probably wouldn't be able to tell that they're gay unless they told you because they have a life, job, hobbies, etc. outside of their gay life and unrelated to sex.

The latter only has their sexual preference and kinks for personality, they eat, drink, live and breathe that shit and you immediately clock then for what they are because there really isn't anything else in there.

The author is the latter. And if my coversations with some of the former are anything to go by, they hate the latter too.

Really, soft LGBs are almost at the point where they're going to get booted from pride for not being deviant enough if they don't check enough kink boxes or don't like the Ts. It's a fascinating impurity spiral they've got going in their community.

 

[Basketball Jones]

You know what, fine, I'll play your game.

People who participate in BDSM culture would know the biggest rule of all: consent. Consent from participating parties is extremely important, without consent you do not have kink. From the submissive, to the dominant, even to the people who may just happen to be there in the same room at a BDSM party. Everyone has to give their expressed consent, otherwise yeah the kinksters who want to play have to take their shit to a different room in the party.

Watching two gay men in gimp outfits kissing at a public Pride event should be a red flag to anyone who likes or participates in kink culture. There are plenty of people who do not want that garbage shoved down their throats. Your "pride" as queers should be just that, happy that you are who you are, and that you are having the basic freedoms like anyone else should. You already have and have had the freedom to be a pervert in your home. The moment you make this shit public, no, you do not have the freedom to be a gross fuck.

Nobody applauds the methheads having public sex by an intersection, nobody applauds the DDLG couple wearing kink wear in the mall (even if they aren't half naked like the fags at pride events), so no we aren't going to applaud you sucking each other's cocks on a public street during a parade. Fuck off.

Just gonna give you this in a reply since I can’t rate it