Homo say what?

I read a blog on the LA WEEKLY site today called Is L.A. Gay Pride an Outdated, Adolescent Mess? and it really made me stop and think. You can follow the link above to read the story for yourself, go ahead, I will wait. While I am sure there are plenty of people who agree 100% with this post, I want to provide the other side to the story. I am going to break the post down and relay my feelings on the key points that are made about Gay Pride being outdated and a mess.

"Are we coming off passe and immature by still celebrating our gay heritage as if we're a bunch of horny, drunk 19-year-olds who came out of the closet a few weekends ago?"

I would say yes, some of us are coming off as horny, drunk 19 year old guys who just came out of the closet, because that is where they are in life. Didn't we all go through that phase? This however is merely a small percentage of the people at Pride. Head to your local Applebee's on a Friday night and see if you don't see people there acting the same way. When we only look at one portion of a thing, we can find any result or conclusion that we want. You want to see drunk horny fools? Check out Mardi Gras. Notice though that there are plenty of people at all these events drinking responsibly or not drinking at all.

"A number of gay men and those in the larger LGBT community have begun to see L.A. Pride as a sad spectacle, particularly since being gay is much more than wearing trendy clothes, sporting tattoos and muscles, and sleeping with whomever comes your way."

Again, this is not just a gay phenomenon, look all around and you will find plenty of trendy clothes wearing, tattooed muscle jocks hitting on anything that moves. America loved Jersey Shore, I guess straight people get a pass. 

"Yet once again L.A. Pride will bring out the go-go boys and cock rings, will be partly underwritten by liquor companies, and will celebrate stereotypes and outdated notions of what it means to be gay."

Check out any event you go to and see if there isn't a beer, wine or liquor company sponsoring it. I run 5k and half marathons and every time you cross the finish line there is a beer company waiting patiently to serve you there goods. A beer sponsor at NASCAR, why is that any different? Who sponsored the last Mardi Gras or St. Patrick's Day parade you attended? What about the last sporting event you attended, was there a beer sponsor? Why wouldn't a beer or liquor company want to sponsor an event where people drink their products? Sounds like a sound marketing plan to me.

Celebrating stereotypes? What about celebrating the people behind those stereotypes? Yes, people may have strong opinions about things they are not comfortable with, but does that make them something that should be viewed as negative? Maybe you aren't enticed by leather or drag or glittery boy shorts, but that doesn't mean that the people who enjoy these things shouldn't be able to come to Pride and be proud of who they are. If you see something you don't like, move on down the line. If you were at a music festival and the band in front of you was playing jazz and you don't like jazz, wouldn't you just walk to the next stage? Oh look, country music, you like that. Did your day at the music fest just get better? Look all around, I am sure you will find a niche that will fit your comfort levels and lifestyle. Better yet, talk to someone who maybe doesn't fit your "comfort mold", you might be surprised what you could learn about other people and maybe even about yourself.

"And then we'll wonder why certain straight folks don't take us seriously or think we're stuck in some kind of "Peter Pan syndrome" -- and we'll cry bloody murder when we're treated poorly."

Before I came out I used to see news reports of Pride events and wonder why they always showed the people covered in glitter, the drag performers, or the muscle guys in the leather jockstraps, but once I started attending myself, I realized it wasn't because those were the only people there. It was what the news stations wanted to flash on their screens for shock and ratings. Yes there is plenty of shock value at Pride, but if that is all you see, then you aren't even looking.

Peter Pan syndrome, yes it's out there, but think of it like this. Imagine being a gay youth who is in the closet. You spend your adolescent years repressing everything about yourself and when you finally come out, you realize you get to start fully living again. You have some catching up to do, maybe some people got partying, clubbing, trendy fashions or other things out of their systems as they progressed, but you are just getting exposed to these things. Why does age even matter here? Once again, be yourself. Want to wear a beanie at 50? Do it. Want to wear what the younger generation wears? Do it. Want to stay out all night clubbing? Why shouldn't you? Some people may have stuff to say about it, but just let that be their issue, not yours
.
"To simply maintain our right to party and hook up with whomever we wish seems so 1970s, doesn't it? So, ah, adolescent."

Visit any trendy nightclub and you will find plenty of straight people partying and hooking up with whomever they choose as well. Scan the "romance" section of Craigslist or similar sites and you will find plenty of straight people looking for random hookups. Gays didn't invent promiscuity, it is a practice in which both gay and straight men and women partake. 

"Heck, let's get real: Is L.A. Pride about celebrating the special spirit of gay folks or filling the cash registers of West Hollywood nightclubs and bars?"

Why can't it be both? More importantly, why shouldn't it be both? Gay businesses need the support of the community. As gay men and women, shouldn't we want to give our money to those businesses that support us?

Having said all that, the post does have a couple of great ideas and they deserve to be mentioned as well.

"Maybe we should bring L.A. Pride back to its roots and make it once again a political statement. To highlight our contributions to society, and to reach out in meaningful ways to our straight allies, our parents, and extended families."

"Maybe we should highlight a particular battle we're fighting on the front lines of gay rights and make that the centerpiece of the gay pride parade, rather than make a straight celebrity a grand marshal, which then diverts publicity toward him or her and away from the important issues we're facing."


Both of these statements are great ideas. I see nothing wrong with adding more awareness to GLBT causes and important GLBT community members, but there needs to be a nice balance. Pride should always be about being able to be 100% yourself in a place surrounded by people who  love and support you. What more can we do to make Pride a tool for equality? It is a point worth investigating.

This Pride season, get out and have fun, but remember those who came before us and all that they have done to get us where we are today!! Maybe one day when we have 100% TRUE equality around the world, we won't need Pride anymore, but until then, you can find me at Pride!

Do you agree with the original post, with me or somewhere in between? Please leave your comments below and feel free to share this post on all your favorite social media outlets. Thanks again for reading, I appreciate it as always.

San Antonio Pride Weekend

We recently took a quick weekend trip to San Antonio to see some friends and to go to Pride. OK, it was about 2.5 weeks ago, and I am just getting around to posting about it, my bad. We arrived Friday evening and had just a quiet night in with some pizza and beer. Saturday morning we went and had brunch at The Guenther House. They had amazing fresh berry waffles, fluffy biscuits and a quiche lorraine that was so good you would probably slap your momma for another piece. The bacon they had was apple wood smoked and thick cut. I could live on bacon alone and I consider myself quite the connoisseur, you MUST get bacon in some fashion with your food if you go, and you must. After all that food, we walked around the neighborhoods in the area and looked at old homes. It has to be a great place to live if it has lions AND cannons on the front walkway!

It really is beautiful here.

Once we had walked the bloat off, we headed to The San Antonio Riverwalk, a great tourist trap but a hell of a lot of fun. The people watching alone makes it worth the crowds. There is a special breed of crazy that runs rampant there.  We saw a homeless prophet, a limbless person selling bottled water, and more fashion disasters than you could shake a stick at. I am usually so good about documenting these sorts of things, but walking around with a camera to your face through a crowd with a river at your feet seemed too risky even for me. We stopped for a drink at Swig, a martini bar, and followed that up with margaritas at The Republic of Texas Restaurant. I am not usually one for a martini I discovered I maybe just "thought" I didn't like them, and who can say no to a margarita. After our 22 oz. margaritas, we decided it was time for a bit of culture. Yeah, you heard me, we wanted culture mixed in with the fun stuff and alcohol.

  

Remember The Alamo.

We headed up to street level and worked our way over to The Alamo. You can not visit San Antonio and not stop off at The Alamo. I was more impressed with the historical significance at this age than when I saw it as a child. To see that kind of history completely enveloped by a bustling metropolis is quite unique. I realized as I read plaques and signs that most of my actual knowledge of the history was lost in the jumble of useless information in my brain. I think we all need refreshers on history from time to time. Having completed our history lesson, it was time for the festivities to begin.

Crazy little window.

Amazing detail work.

Ain't we adorable?

San Antonio Pride was a little less crowded than I expected for a big city, but as the evening progressed, it picked up. They had all the usual booths, PFLAG, HRC, a few political booths and plenty of greasy as fuck food options. I ate plenty, believe me. The actual parade was at 9pm which seems so weird for a Pride Parade, usually they are earlier in the day or maybe 5-6pm. We had some time to kill after having circled the booth and food pavilion a couple of times so we walked down the street to a couple of the bars. We stopped at The Pegasus and Sparks Club. In our minor travels to different towns and experiencing gay bars in all of them, we have realized that regardless of the town you are in or the size of the town, all bars fall into the same formats. The faces are new, the paint on the walls is a different color, but they are all poorly lit and smell slightly of puke. Don't worry straight people, your bars are the exact same too. Maybe just slightly more pukey. We headed back to the park for some cold beer and to wait for the parade to begin. They had a stage with performances going on and we heard a woman singing in the background but had no clue who she was or what she was even singing. I did however hear that she would be doing a meet and greet and signing autographs. If you have followed my Facebook page from the start, you know my obsession with meeting celebrities, so I decided I was going to wait in line. Richard went to refill our beers and I began plotting what I would even say when it was my turn to meet her. About 10 minutes later it was my turn and I was the lucky last person in line so I feel like I got to spend some good quality time talking with her. Turns out she is a Hi-NRG dance music singer and she was AMAZINGLY sweet. Abigail Zsiga, check her out, she has some great music and some really awesome covers HERE is her Facebook page as well. We chatted for a few minutes and I got my autograph and my wonderful photographer captured my latest celebrity encounter. Now I just had to contend with carrying her autographed head shot around for the rest of the night. There is a slideshow below with a TON of pics from the parade, for your enjoyment. For our enjoyment, we hit up Whataburger after the parade and went home and crashed. We needed to be rested up for our next big adventure on Sunday, SEA WORLD!!!!!

Who can pass up a celebrity photo??

Yeah I can't pass up an autograph either.

This was my amazing $5 purchase! Pretty sure I rocked it!

This was us captured by the local news! See, we are famous.

The last day of our San Antonio trip was filled to the brim with Sea World. We had never been before and what an amazing experience it was. I thought it was just an aquatic zoo with dolphin and killer whale shows, but turns out I was completely wrong. It has roller coasters, water slides, tons of shows and now even has an entire water park on site as well.We grabbed a map and looked at the times of the shows and tried to plan our journey to maximize the shows we could see with the other fun we could have. Sea World is another wonderful place to people watch.

My first dangling feet coaster ride ever. Soo dizzy.

One of our first stops was The Great White coaster. This is one of those wonderful coasters where your feet dangle below you and you can see the ground the whole time. Let me preface this part of the journey with a little back story. I am a horrible roller coaster rider. I ride them because I don't want to miss out on the fun and when the ride is over, I am always glad I did. I am not afraid that anything bad is going to happen or that something is going to break, I am just VERY sensitive to motion, my stomach drops in elevators most of the time. That being said, the terror for me begins while waiting in line. Now I have ridden what I call "normal" coasters, you sit in the car, they strap you in and maybe you even do a loop. I had not yet done one of the "bottomless" coasters so this was EXTRA unnerving. Luckily there was no line at all and we only had to wait one cycle before we could board. I counted the trip before us, it took 30 seconds. I kept repeating that as my mantra. I knew I could survive for 30 seconds. Poor Richard tired so hard to soothe the panic in me and I just prayed I would keep my antics under as much control as possible. Once they started going down the line checking all the harnesses, I began working out how I was going to get off the ride. 30 seconds. Sadly I didn't come up with anything before we lurched forward. 30 seconds. I knew from the walk up to the ride that there were 2 separate loops and several corkscrews and I still didn't like the fact that I couldn't dig my feet into the bottom of the car for extra security. 30 seconds. First drop goes right into the first loop. What I experience is what i feel like you see when you watch a civilian ride in an Air Force jet, lots of weird breathing noises and possibly some blacking out. 30 seconds. I forced myself to open my eyes right as we hit the first corkscrew, whoops, clamped them shut again. Finally I was getting enough endorphins to overcome most of it and I opened my eyes and let the good kind of screaming out. Another loop and corkscrews and it was over. It seemed impossible to think it was only 30 seconds, but I had done it!! I rode this bitch and actually got to enjoy some of it LOL.  As you can tell from my excited expression on my bright red face I was pretty proud of myself.

Panic, nothing short of panic.

Add caption

You must be joking.

Nope, not joking.

HORK

Here is a nice front seat view of this damnable coaster.


After The Great White, we went for something a little more tame, the Rio Loco. You gotta enjoy the white water rapids! Sadly for the next big chunk of our time, we didn't have our phones. We put everything in a locker before riding the Great White and didn't get them out until later. All the things in the middle involved getting wet, so they were not very iPhone friendly anyway. The rapids had a much longer line than the coaster and we waited probably 20-30 minutes. As we got to the front of the line it started raining. Apparently it never rains in San Antonio. We learned this from EVERYONE in line. We knew we would be getting wet anyway so the rain didn't bother us. We were nervous when they announced that due to the weather, the ride could close at any time. Thankfully we got into our raft so it was no longer an issue. The rain stopped just about the time we started getting drenched by the rapids. Then there was that damn waterfall. If you weren't wet before it, you were now. Although there were a surprising number of people who seemed to be dry when they got off the ride, we were not.

This is my new girlfriend, Martha!

Headed off to see the killer whale show, this was a time when I really wanted the phone to take some pics but was sat in the "splash zone" which is the kind way to say "You are gonna get fucking soaked." The show was spectacular and the whales were so graceful. Such intelligence too. I guess they don't actually get in the water with the Orcas anymore. One too many accidents it would seem. It didn't make the show any less impressive so it could be easily overlooked. After the Shamu show we headed over to the Azul show. It has dolphins, belugas, birds and acrobats. I would call it Cirque du Soleil meets aquatic mammals. Lots of acrobatic performances from the animals and the humans. I assume they still get to swim with the animals in this show since a human won't fit in any of their mouths. After the show we got really lucky, our friend Jeff knew one of the trainers and we got to go behind the scenes and got to meet Martha, one of the belugas from the show. Yes we even got to get a kiss. My face still smells slightly fishy. There is a straight guy or lesbian joke in there somewhere, but I digress. After our bonus experience, our time was winding down and we decided we needed to hit the other coaster in the park before we left.

This was us after the Steel Eel. It is a nice 15 story drop. When you watch the video below, notice the cameras on the first lift. Apparently they watch for people who have cameras or cellphones out. Well someone on our run had one out and they stopped the damn coaster about 12 stories in the air. As you know from the previous coaster experience, I am not great at the start of the ride so I am almost coming out of my skin while we hang 12 stories in the air. My best guess is it sounded like a lamaze class with my crazy breathing. After repeatedly blasting an announcement about safety and not allowing recording devices, whoever it was was kind enough to put it away and they were able to start us up the last couple of stories before the big fall. This is not my proudest moment, especially when you look around and see kids just barely tall enough to even get on the damn ride who are soooo excited. Luckily after the first drop, 15 stories, I was able to open my eyes and I even raised my hands a couple times. Thankfully there were no loops or any crazy curves. Just some big drops and 3 big camel humps at the end which I had heard from everyone around were pretty brutal to your body. They were, lots of slamming around in the cars. *HORK*

The thunder rolls........

We were all a little green around the gills after the heat, humidity and rides so we hopped in the car and headed home. We packed our car and said goodbye to our friends and to San Antonio. Gassed up the car and had a little McDonald's for dinner. As we were getting on the road a horrible storm blew through and was sending trashcans, signs, anything that wasn't bolted down, flying across the parking lot. Big dust storm in the field next to us. The first 30 minutes or so of our drive home was gruelingly slow due to heavy rains. Clearly San Antonio was sad that we were leaving. We tend to have that effect on people and now clearly on places as well.

We had a blast in San Antonio thanks to our wonderful hosts and to a wonderful city. We can't wait to come back again.(With Dramamine and a waterproof camera) We did get to have our first Austin experience on this trip. Unfortunately it was just driving through. But here are 2 pics for your enjoyment lol. We are coming for you next Austin, don't you worry.

As a special bonus, here are some amazing "fails" from our trip. Just some lighthearted fun and a little morbidity. Enjoy and please feel free to leave comments!!!

Our Host was seriously named Brody Cheek.

Dead baby duck!! He should have moved out of the way of the boats.

Do you want chesse and gouacamole on your gordita??

I took this picture a million times to get rid of the shadow, sadly it was my arms making it.

           

MONGOOSE PRIDE!!

Hey Everyone, we will be heading to San Fran tomorrow morning at an insane hour for our vacation. We will be gone for a week. I hope to update this blog with all our fun adventures but who knows how much that will really happen. Maybe it will maybe it wont lol just know it will be coming soon. To all our PRIDE attendees in OKC, Houston, San Fran and any other cities doing it this coming weekend, be SAFE and have more fun than you should!! We love you all!!