On the one hand, previous generations of LGBTQ activists fought for this acceptance, for a world in which being gay or lesbian was a non-issue. This acceptance has become something of a double-edged sword. For many young people, being gay is cool, not condemned. Those wins are one of the reasons behind the influx of straight partygoers. Last year in San Francisco, more than 1 million people took part, while in New York, attendance numbered more than 40,000. Pride celebrations swelled into huge affairs in many major cities globally.
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In the 1990s and 2000s, the LGBTQ movement began to grow, slowly winning legal victories. Gay Liberation marches became Gay Pride parades, and the events became more mainstream. In the 1980s, gay protest culture began to evolve. Back then, they were called "Gay Liberation" marches and were controversial and radical. The first parades began in 1970 to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York. Groups joining Pride events from outside the gay community have been a point of tension and debate within the gay and lesbian community, especially as the number of corporate sponsors joining the parades grows each year. "It’s not in the interest of most (LGBTQ) people of color to be in this kind of celebratory type of gay pride that has absolutely no political vision," she said.
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University of California-Berkeley gender and women's studies professor Paola Bacchetta said she sees it as a kind of co-opting of the underlying political necessity of the marches. But the growing phenomenon of straight young adults attending just to party, sometimes in large numbers, has burgeoned in recent years. Straight people showing up to Gay Pride parades is nothing new. "They are attending someone else's party. The streets along parade routes are thronged with groups of people in their teens and 20s, dancing and partying while sporting rainbow-colored wigs, sunglasses and feather boas, along with the ever-present tutus.Įllis said he doesn't have a problem with non-LGBTQ people going to the Pride parade, but they should be focused on supporting the gay community. When it comes to LGBTQ Pride marches, that same shift has happened in less than 50 years. They morphed into statements of Irish pride and solidarity, then became an excuse for many to wear green and drink Guinness stout. The parades in honor of Ireland’s patron saint began as religious celebrations and in the USA date back to the 1700s. Patrick’s Day, only with rainbow tutus instead of shamrocks. In many large cities, Gay Pride marches have become the new St. They had run into a cultural shift breathtaking in its speed and still something of a disconnect to many in the gay community. "I stopped and said (to my partner), 'Do you see any gay people around us?' And it was like, 'Oh my God, no,' " he said. When he most recently attended the San Francisco Pride Parade with his partner, he was shocked by what he saw. He marched in Pittsburgh's first one in 1973 with just 40 other people, flanked by angry residents holding glass bottles and rocks with only two unhappy police officers for protection.Įllis, manager at Cliff's Variety Store in the historic Castro district, is part of the generation of LGBTQ activists who fought for basic rights, to get jobs and to avoid arrest.
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SAN FRANCISCO – Paul Ellis has seen a lot of Gay Pride parades.