Pride and Fairies Signifying Nothing

[To clarify...I think the "word" Queerific is awful, and is quite possibly the stupidest "theme" our fair city's pride celebration has ever had (and there've been some dillies). I first heard of it a few months ago, in my copyediting class at Harvey Milk. We all dissected it (as copyeditors are wont to do), and decided it was meant to be a composite of queer and terrific. We immediately chose to see it instead as a mix of queer and horrific, and started to use it as an insult: "Oh, Mary, those shoes are Queerific. Payless was having a sale?" It never caught on, even in that negative sense. It's just God Damn Dumb.]

[Ah, June, when all the articles critical of gay pride celebrations start to, um, come out. I wonder what David will create for us this year? As with most things, I'm sorta in the middle, myself. We own Nothing Rainbow in our household (well, there is that tacky Statue of Liberty Christmas tree ornament, but we never hang it up), but much of our decor does reveal our orientation. Our CD collection does include quite a bit of Madonna, but very little of FagDisco™. (There are a couple of cobwebbed compilations from a few years ago - if we try to pull it out at parties, we date ourselves even more than if we just stuck to the pop we actually like.) I've been to the celebrations in Santa Barbara, San Francisco, New York, and L.A., and, on the whole, I'd rather have stayed at home. However, I understand the purpose behind them, and I didn't already live in the heart of Gayland Theme Park, I probably would be a lot more excited about them.]

[As it is, I will probably see some aspect of it, whether dragged to some event in a haze of weekend party vibe, or because I just have nothing better to do, or because I still love the B-52's. Or maybe I'll avoid the whole thing. Pushing thru the crowd at Union Street last weekend showed me that these events all blend together after a while: the same crappy crafts, promotions, and junk food, the same bad music and bovine crowds. Eminently skippable.]

Previously Next