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Underwhelmed by L.A. Pride

I don't think [Dana Miller is] the only voice that is screaming for the City of West Hollywood to fire [Christopher Street West] and bring in a for-profit producer who knows how to put on a show [Out and About, Issue 10.26]. The parade is the same, boring rag-tag event every year. We get D- or F-list “celebrities” for the parade and the “entertainment.” CSW continues to produce the worst Pride events. Its board seems incapable of the production. And its finances are a mess. Did they ever get their act together and file tax returns? Do they even have a clue as to what “in kind” donations they get?

I’d rather our city (and I've lived in the heart of WeHo since 1991) hire one of the many excellent for-profit party promoters/producers to do a first-rate job. First, I bet we get more for our money and, second, I bet that the event is way better.

Todd Bianco
via Internet

L.A. Pride is tired and embarrassing. I go every year because as a 67-year-old gay man, I want to be counted, but the media totally overlooks me and thousands others to get footage of the bare asses and drag queens for the 6 o’clock news.

There are too many issues confronting us to carry on like children whose parents are not around. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be fun. I'm just saying in this election year we should be demonstrating the strength in our numbers and our seriousness with the same fervor that we did when we had to care for our own during the AIDS crisis. We matured then and showed this country our strength and our toughness. And, yes, there are many in the community and in the state worthy of serving as grand marshal (how about Gavin Newsom?). I will never forget watching the spectacle of Paris Hilton and her mother being escorted down the boulevard atop a huge and unnecessary float. Shame on us and shame on Christopher Street West. That was an all-time low point in my estimation.

Tim Sullivan
via Internet

I could not agree more with what Dana Miller wrote about CSW. His feelings reminded me of a conversation I had shortly after moving to L.A. in 1996. I was eating lunch the week before the big parade at a cute little place called the Heights Cafe. I was checking out the dessert case and the owner, Greg, asked me if I had plans for the parade. Having just left working on Capitol Hill and being a creature of politics, I told him exactly what I thought of the gay “Pride” parade. I also reminded him that not every gay person in the U.S. had the luxury of living in West Hollywood where they could attend a parade in a thong and nothing else. I may as well have been speaking Norwegian to him.

I further explained that the reason so many of my friends on the Hill remained closeted (and Republican) was because they didn't wish to be associated with what passed for "gay culture." Not surprisingly, he denounced my friends as cowards and hypocrites (kinda true, but I was young then!). I tried to impress upon him the fact that in most places in America you could be fired from your job, lose your housing or even be killed for being out. Honest to God, he didn't believe me.

I don't think there should be parades. A little less with the parades and the floats. A little more thinking about our fellow gay and lesbians who don't live in safe urban areas. They are counting on us.

John C.
via Internet

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