2007 Gay Parade Pride
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WeHo Pride: Soon to be 90% prouder?
Instead of just blowing the whole load in a weekend of parade festivities, a West Hollywood City Council task force is recommending that the community's gay pride celebration should be expanded into a month-long social and cultural event. Flaggy. Keeping with the suggestion, we think the entire month of June should simply be renamed June Likes Girls, So Get The F**k It Over It. While it may be wordy and a bit annoying for those who like to write out a month's name rather than use its numeric representation, we think it would drive our "We're Here, We're Queer" point home in ways far greater than any flag and float-filled parade could ever hope. So what do we think, world -- summer of '07 begins on June Likes Girls, So get the F**k Over It 21, 2007? We're thinking we're on to somethin'! It's unclear if any other areas of the country will follow WeHo's lead and consider expanding their own pride festivities.
Who is the victim in a gay marriage?
My daughter, in a wheelchair, and I went to the Gay Pride Fair in downtown Hayward, where she was completely accepted. I saw something very disturbing, though: a young couple, their marriage license on the T-shirt one of them wore, with "VOID" stamped across it. Both were male. They had been in the group that had experienced one heady moment of hope and fulfillment only to have it dashed by those seeking to "protect" what? The Sanctity of Marriage? Tell that to Laci Peterson's parents, or the battered wives in the women's shelters! Sanctity is conferred upon marriage by the love and commitment of the partners, not by whether the partners are the right sex or race. What is being affirmed now is the right of one group to dictate to others what they can or can't do. Laws make sense when there is a victim.
Lesbians step out with pride
It may be more typical for East Bay denizens to head to San Francisco for gay pride events, but city resident Marge Nelson crossed the bay Saturday to march with her "sweetie" in Oakland's Sistahs Steppin' in Pride march. Walking arm in arm in purple T-shirts declaring them "Old Lesbians Organizing for Change," Nelson, 77, and Tita Caldwell, 75, helped bring up the rear of a joyful crowd that stopped traffic around Lake Merritt as marchers pounded drums, blew shrieking whistles and revved motorcycle engines in the fifth annual event. "Oakland has the largest number of lesbian households of any city in the nation. It's time to take pride in that," said Caldwell, an Oakland resident for 25 years who met Nelson last year at San Francisco's Dyke March. Nearby, thirtysomething Oaklanders Pam Flood and Yvonne Courtemanche pushed their 3-year-old daughter, Josephine, in a stroller.
Big days in the frame
It was set up by Kirklees Council's Museums and Galleries department to look at how gay and lesbian couples went about organising their civil partnership ceremonies after they became legal last December. The exhibition organisers wanted to see how couples chose what to wear and how to celebrate, as there were no traditions to guide them. Project co-ordinator, Katina Bill said: "Having their relationship legally recognised is very important to couples. They want a day to remember. .
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