Gay and Lesbian Pride Mardi Gras Parade

Last night was the Gay and Lesbian Pride Mardi Gras Parade. Sydney is one of the gay capitols of the world, and I was lucky enough to be studying here during the month-long celebration of queer pride! Unfortunately, I didn't get to do anything but the closing parade. This is also one of the biggest parts of the celebration.

My flatmates, Christian's friend Ngan, and I headed by the bus to Hyde Park, where other exchange students were supposed to be. We found them chilling under a tree pretty far away from the road the parade would be on. We decided to ditch them and camp out closer to the road. We settled down in the shade pretty close to the road and enjoyed ourselves for a few hours. A bunch of our friends came by as time went on, so we had quite a little crowd. The real crowd kept getting larger and larger; we proved to not be the brightest crayons in the box, because we didn't push as close to the front as possible when it was early.

By the time the parade started, there were so many people and we couldn't see a thing. We were actually watching part of the parade through someone else's camera. I found a crack so I squeezed in, thereby separating myself from my group...not cool. I was in the middle of a group of Asian tourists, which was both amusing and really annoying.

For the first ten minutes or so I was filled with such pride--pride for myself, my family, my friends...but then it dawned on me that it was all GAY and LESBIAN pride. Where was the BT(Q) of GLBT? There were floats for fun, floats for political groups, the NSW fire brigade truck drove by, the Bear population had a Bear Pride display (bears are big, hairy gay men--they even have their own damned pride flag!), Bitchz on Bikes (with the sign "Save the Earth, Ride a Bike (crossed out) Dyke) rode by...even two floats that were essentially advertisements went by. (Side Note: One of those floats was IKEA, with a sign stating "IKEA Supports Gay and Lesbian Households." I thought of Uncle Keith and his obsession with IKEA, and decided it should have been "Gay and Lesbian Households Support IKEA.")

FINALLY, the fourth to last float came by with the statement "Equal Opportunity Lover" and the bi pride colors (pink, purple, blue) drove by. Why was the bi population relegated to the end of the parade, and what about the poor transgendered/sexual people? I left feeling somewhat disheartened. I feel like there's prejudice within the gay community against those who can't fit the mold of what a "normal queer" is (god, what an oxymoron there!)--if you're not a fairy or a dyke, get out. That's a bit simplified, but it still feels that way.

I left with a gay pride flag, some great pictures, and some good memories, but also mixed feelings about pride parades. I'll have to see one in the US before I judge, I guess.

Today was one of those lazy Sundays. It's been hot as hell this weekend, I need to clean, but my roommates and I did an ice cream run and talked about Britney Spears's breakdown...how sad is that last part? K, I'm off to do homework and clean....or keep surfing the internet because I'm too hot to move. Either or.