Allies should sit on Pride sidelines
Move aside, purported allies. Your snowballing presence is no longer needed at the San Francisco Pride parade.
Last year, event organizers banned uniformed officers from marching over a 2019 incident of policeinvolved violence at the parade. That was the right decision. And I know another group who join officers on the sidelines: openly heterosexual folks.
If you think these are the bitter musings of a forlorn 40something gay man, you’re only half right: It wasn’t long ago that the annual march celebrating queerdom was primarily attended by those within our community.
Pride began as a rally against antigay laws and societal prejudice. It rose from the Compton Cafeteria riots in 1966, when a group of trans women in the Tenderloin fought back against police abuse inside Gene Compton’s Cafeteria; the Los Angeles’ Black Cat Tavern raid in 1967, which erupted in protest after police beat and charged patrons with lewd conduct for samesex kissing; and most notably, the Stonewall riots in New York in 1969. The first Pride march in San Francisco in 1970 was a child of these bold, raging acts of civil disobedience.
As the years went by — and Will and Grace, Ellen Degeneres, RuPaul and Schitt’s Creek acclimated the cisgendered masses to a palatable and quirky queer life — the city’s predominately heterosexual power players slowly and carefully coopted the annual bacchanalia.
Now we’re stuck with contingent after uninspired contingent of supervisors or city attorneys riding in antique convertible cars with meek handfuls of aides and interns trailing behind, forced to don their bosses’ name on custom Zazzle tees. Marvelous? Hardly.
The puton revelry and cheap sentiment are offensive. In addition to a dearth of panache, their presence in the parade smacks of smarm, not support. Even the Trump administration held its own awkward Pride rally last year in an attempt to curry favor. And they’re taking space away from queer people. They might as well crash the DJ Booth at Beaux on a Friday night and blare Post Malone.
While some longtime locals love to bemoan the annual cavalcade up Market Street, it remains an important sight to behold. Taking part in the parade is a rite of passage for many queer people. It remains one hell of a blowout, so party crashers are inevitable. But it’s time to gently prune the interlopers vying for center stage.
Refurbishing Pride to make it something even better is nothing new.
Oakland Black Pride, happening this weekend, formed in 2020 to tackle the nuanced issues of LGBTQidentified Black people, members of two historically underserved communities, in order to ensure their visibility, growth, survival, and celebration. (Reports on the increasing number of deaths of Black trans people are horrifying.)
“There’s been an erasure of the architects and elders of the LGBTQ+ movement; it has been whitewashed and so has Pride overall,” said Olaywa K. Austin, executive director of Oakland Black Pride. “Two trans women of color, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, led the Stonewall rebellion and are mothers of the Pride movement, but today it’s dominated by white cisgender gay men, allies and corporations and is far removed from Stonewall."
I agree.
Austin's argument also dovetails nicely into SF Pride.
Once a queer mecca, San Francisco has lost its lavenderhued shine over the years. In a city that had at least one gay bar in almost every neighborhood 20 years ago, most of them are now relegated to the Castro and SoMa.
The real estate industry has taken to manufacturing misnomers for Castro, like “Dolores Heights,” or “Eureka Valley,” in order to cast a wider net for prospective heterosexual homebuyers. And the neutered Pride slogans (e.g., “love is love”) seen in storefronts across the city each June read less as genuine support and more like moneygrubbing attempts to connect with LGBTQ wallets.
And, to be sure, there’s gold in them there gay populations. The Pride parade is the centerpiece of the largest singleevent revenue generator in San Francisco. Business groups estimate that Pride weekend generates over $350 million in retail, restaurant and hotel revenue. And queer folks, who still lag in the 2.5 children department, have money to burn.
San Francisco’s Pride parade is, of course, canceled this year because of COVID. When it returns next June, elected officials and social climbers who aren’t on the LBGTQ rainbow should resist the urge to impede on queer spaces and gatherings.
No more riding in the procession. No more using our space to stump for votes. No more queerbaiting us by dressing in drag at the Powerhouse, which, for the unfamiliar, is South of Market’s best dive bar for having literal penetrative sex on the dance floor (according to my very own eyes).
Exceptions are granted for young revelers who come from afar, get blitzed on a passedaround bottle of vodka, and later fill the city gutters with bile. (Young people act foolish by nature. And many still haven’t discovered themselves.) Pride is, after all, a riot and a celebration. Let those who haven’t had a liversoaked in overpriced beer have their fun.
Other exceptions, of course, should be made for friends or family members of LGBTQ youth and — why not — your straight girlfriend you drag with you to Oasis each Friday night.
For everyone else, have a seat on the sidewalk.