I'd definitely be interested in this, especially as what's held me back before is a lack of people to go with.

Well I'll be in Manchester, and frequenting the village for the whole of the 10-day Pride Event anyway, so that's me sort-of included

Sounds good & it give me an excuse 2c H :o) will look in2 it

Will look in2 it :o) Altho I'll probably end up stayin in "my" crackden in Brookhouse, home of the killer weed!

the "crackden"?

'SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE?'
WELL THAT'S HOW THEY'RE SELLING "PRIDE" THIS YEAR...MMM AIN'T GOT **** FOR ME BUT I GUESS THEY AIN'T GOT MUCH FOR ANYONE REALLY ALTHOUGH IT SEEMS PLENTY OF FOLKS ARE HAPPY TO SPEND FIFTEEN POUNDS FOR NOTHING?

DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THEY'RE CHARGING AGAIN THIS YEAR? IF SO, WHY NOT LET'S GIVE IT A MISS AND CREATE A 'GAY SHAME' PARADE OF OUR OWN. SHAME ON THEM FOR EXPLOITING THEIR OWN. 'TO BE GAY YOU HAVE TO SPEND £15 AND COME MARCH WITH US' IS THIS THE MESSAGE THAT WE REALLY WANNA DELIVER TO LITTLE KIDS? (AND EXPECT THEM NOT TO KNOW WHAT A WOMAN'S CLITORIS IS...I DIGRESS!!) F.U.CK PRIDE I SAY!

Oh and the parade is completely free.

...And also bizarrely enough, because Cruz 101 is not inside the village, technically you don't need a wristband to get in there either. It was quite funny last year to see al the straight places become gay for a week.

In Manchester, 2 years ago, I was disturbed by the amount companies flagrantly clamouring to suddenly appear all gay friendly. Cue pink balloons and giant adverts in the shape of a pink pound (subtle). While all businesses may no t be evil and homophobic, would they be so keen to shout about it if £££ weren't involved? Support for our community shouldn't be conditional upon it being the season of year where we flock to our Mecca. It should be year round or not at all. Otherwise the word I'm inclined to use would be 'greed'.

Best warm wishes to everyone who's going. But I've had the experience and it ain't for me. When you feel isolated by whatever aspect of your identity, to embrace something that you see as accepting that single aspect wholeheartedly and view it as your one and only lifeline and hence to think that questioning that is severing your lifeline, is dangerous. I want people to be aware that if they don't like it, they don't have to keep going back. There's more than one way to be gay and you shouldn't always have to pay.

One long clunky sentence there but I hope you catch my drift.
Warm wishes JohnK

-- Edited by nonto at 20:44, 2005-03-23

quote:

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Originally posted by: nonto
"In Manchester, 2 years ago, I was disturbed by the amount companies flagrantly clamouring to suddenly appear all gay friendly. Cue pink balloons and giant adverts in the shape of a pink pound (subtle). While all businesses may no t be evil and homophobic, would they be so keen to shout about it if £££ weren't involved? Support for our community shouldn't be conditional upon it being the season of year where we flock to our Mecca. It should be year round or not at all. Otherwise the word I'm inclined to use would be 'greed'. 23"

---

I ignore advertising generally. It is a fact of life, and the companies are there to make money. I try to focus on the real issues of pride.

quote:

---

Originally posted by: nonto
"
Best warm wishes to everyone who's going. But I've had the experience and it ain't for me. When you feel isolated by whatever aspect of your identity, to embrace something that you see as accepting that single aspect wholeheartedly and view it as your one and only lifeline and hence to think that questioning that is severing your lifeline, is dangerous. I want people to be aware that if they don't like it, they don't have to keep going back. There's more than one way to be gay and you shouldn't always have to pay.
"

---

I agree with your sentiment Nonto. I often feel isolated on the 'Gay' scene. But I often feel isolated on the 'Alternative' gay scene because I'm not 'alternative' enough.

And surely saying 'I don't fit in so I am not going because it isn't representative and I am going to set up and alternative pride of my own' is seperatism and only adds to the problem of diversity by creating segregated camps? Can't you muscle in and just be proud of who you are? And as I have said, the Pride last year was really diverse. The whole thing takes place over 10 days, you only pay for 2 and that is only to get in the village (which gets so busy that they literally have to pay for security and stewards).

I really don't believe seperatism is the answer, because seperate camps aren't inclusive. What happens to the people who don't feel comfortable in either place?



-- Edited by JohnK at 22:42, 2005-03-28

ditto john and pete

luv u alison

Princess Anne?

Alix Dobkin?

sounds quite posh that...

nah, i'll be enjoying living my life :)

Grr, I'd forgotten about that.
What can't they just move the Leeds festival? or Manc Pride?
Hmm, I might go to V or something instead - wonder if they still have tickets...

i've checked an brighton pride is the 6th of august. will need to organise accommodation well in advance tho, if anyone is interested??

Nonto, John, I see what you are both saying (i think).

I agree that 'DIY events' can sometimes work towards enhancing pride whereas Gay Pride event's, in my opinion at least, can sometimes be relatively cosmetic and fake. Plus there's always that hypocritical question of how much pride do people really feel when the simple alternative is to make themselves look good and get laid! HOWEVER, DIY events are not always perfect and can sometimes fail to be inclusive, and the individuals who participate within them can believe themselves special, alternatives, cooler than the queens and dykes that parade themselves in queens court... Its similar to the alternative music scene, the goths love music until it becomes 'mainstream', with the word 'mainstream' spat out like an infection. In a similar way there are some things at Pride which need not be tarred with the same commercialist brush, and while it's something that people can get a lot of fun and a good time out of, i don't think we should be slagging it off.

This is a society trip that i assume is going to happen, if anyone else has suggestions for a trip that would correlate to some form of pride, rather than simply criticising pride as it stands, could you please email the committee? That way we can do our job more effectively and bring what our members want to our members.

Our email as ever is luu.lgbt@leeds.ac.uk and we check it daily

Ta Muchly,

Dave x

Not sure if that post was a dig at me or whatever. I won't presume anything though!

well i feel ignored on this thread, do i have to criticise someone/something off to get attention?

I don’t often comment on these types of issues as it rarely does any good to get involved in a spat between two members on the forum. However I would just like to say that I can see the points that both of you are trying to make about the inclusively of both your respective groups but I feel that you are banging on about something that cannot be resolved by resorting to bitching at each other on here. I can see nonto's point about pride (and the gay scene in general) not being inclusive to all members of the queer community but what I think anyone has failed to mention is that the alternative, DIY, flapack or low-budget events that are happening all the time are just the other side of the same gay coin. There have been people (and im not mentioning any names) who have been to these events and come away with the view that the alternative gay scene is just as exclusive, if not more so, than the "mainstream" queer community. The queer community has always been about alternative cultures. Firstly with us all being, in some capacity, alternative to the heterosexual community but there have always been sub groups in the queer community itself e.g. gays, lesbians, twinks, bears, butch dykes, femmes, trans people, sub, Dom etc etc. Setting up alternatives so that people do have a choice of how they wish to celebrate their sexuality is a very important step in helping the individual in finding their own niche in the queer community but doing this we must endeavour not to segregate ourselves from the other queer groups or from the rest of society as a whole. I’m sorry that this has turned into a bit of a rant and I hope that I have not offended anyone.

D x

P.S. I would just like to add that I have not as yet been to any of the alternative queer events that have been set up but I hope to in the future as I feel that everyone should try out every alternative that life has to offer at least once.

X

A post was recently deleted off of this thread. I am sorry for any upset it may have caused people.

Thanks.

Thank god for both leeds lgbt and leeds met lgb!

Before i read this post i thought that i was the only person how felt some what alienated from the whole gay scene. When i joined Leeds met LGB, I was soo pleased to find that both societies offer nights out and a break from the 'typical' gay clubs/music and that they acknowledge the 'alternative' gayers that dont fit in to the stereotypical gay thing. Don't get me wrong, the 'typical' gay scene can soooo rule but like with anything can become tired and over done. Not to mention kind of disheartening when you just don't fit in.

However, no one ever really is in fitting with any stereotype-this post proves it. There are not clear cut groups-the boundaries will always be blurred. And i for one am very proud that I 1) am different. Ppl either take me as i am or kiss my ass and 2) belong to such a dinamic group of ppl-the gay communty but above this the lgb's.

SOooo I'm P,C'ed and 'trying not to tread on anybodies toes' out!!