In defense of Pride

I spent yesterday at Long Beach Pride. When, a few days before the event, I asked a very cute friend of mine if she was going down to Long Beach for Pride, her response was "I don't have to pay to be gay," which I found fascinating. It immediately put me on the defensive, even though I agree with her in some ways. Pride events are ridiculously overpriced. Long Beach Pride cost $20 to get in the door, and many people I know attended Saturday night (the Indigo Girls performed, which would have been amazing to see) as well as Sunday, which would be $40 even before the insanely overpriced food and drinks get factored in. That's a lot of money. Of course, I spent Saturday night at a house party with friends of mine, which didn't cost me anything, though I did buy a sixpack of beer as a contribution that I then forgot about and left in my car, so I suppose if I had been on top of things it would have cost me $8. I went down to the Parade on Sunday morning, which cost me $1 to take the bus back to the house I was staying at after the parade because it was a decent walk and my feet hurt. If I had left it at that, Pride would have been a very inexpensive bit of entertainment in all. Of course, I didn't. I went into the pride festival, which was fairly unimpressive in terms of booths and available information. I didn't really see anything I wanted to buy or organizations I wanted to join. The crowd, however, was fabulous, and that was, of course, why I was there.

It was by no means my first gay pride event, but it was the first time I went down to Long Beach and I find it fascinating how different regional pride events can be. I was impressed by the vibrancy and diversity of the crowd at Long Beach Pride, particularly at the wide range of lesbians and queer women I spotted. At LA Pride, which I have attended a couple of times in the past, the crowd seems heavily weighted toward gay men. Often young, clean, muscular gay men. If there are lesbians, they tend to be older, often LA Power Lesbian types or lipstick lesbians in femme-femme couples. There are a few cute butch ones, but almost always in couples holding hands or making out with femmey girlfriends. Not that there's anything wrong with that; if I had a cute butch girlfriend, I'd spend all of Pride holding hands and making out with her, too. The revelation for me at Long Beach Pride was the sheer number of people I found cute. There were more than just a few butch girls with girlfriends - there was a huge range of diversity in lesbians in terms of color, type, and gender presentation. There were more than just a few people my own age. There were more than just a few people I would flirt with or date (if I were good at talking to strangers). There were cute girls everywhere. And there were butch-femme couples, butch-butch couples, and roving packs of all sorts of queer females in which I wasn't sure who was with whom. I enjoyed spotting cute girls all day, and was reminded that there really are people in this world, even in (or near) LA, that I would gladly date - if only I knew how to meet them. Of course, I didn't manage to actually meet any cute girls at Pride (except a couple of baby dykes that my drag queen friend befriended). Plus, I somehow managed to get hit on by a straight man (one of the security guards), which I find ironic at gay pride. But, in general, my hope for the universe was marginally restored. There are cute girls out there, and I will meet them someday. Which, in existential terms, is rather worth my $20. It is weird to pay just to be allowed in the gates to see all the other queer folks out there, especially since I really only talk to the ones I already know (and those who wanted to take a picture with the fabulous blue-haired drag queen I was standing next to). And especially since, even at gay pride, I couldn't manage to be seen as gay (hence straight man hitting on me). But sometimes it is good just to see what's out there and that you're not alone, and that's what Pride achieves.

I look forward to LA Pride, where I'll be helping out with the newly instituted Transgender Pride events at LA Pride entitled Transcend: Yield for Gender Liberation. It will be a very different Pride experience, but it should be a great time. We're putting together a couple of pretty awesome shows.