The _____ Pride Parade (or how I learned to stop hating and love everyone)

I believe in the good of people.

I trust in the better nature of humanity.

I do not understand how people can hate other people so much for simply being human.

Recently, after browsing through Facebook, the Perez, a little gander on Twitter and exhausting myself on Jezebel, Firefox and I strode over to the CBC webpage. Check on the news, see what's new and crazy in Manitoba. I do this fairly often, mostly so that I'll understand what people are talking about when they refer to such-and-such or this-and-that. These days, keeping up with the news is harder and harder; I've lived in four places in the past year and feel the need to check up on all of them. Thank goodness for the development of tabbed browsing.

On the CBC homepage for news, a particular headline caught my eye: "Original gay pride event had protest element." The article is about this weekend's Pride events in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This year's parade grand marshall is Glen Murray, the former mayor of Winnipeg. More importantly, he is the "first openly gay mayor of a major Canadian city." Good for you Glen! Unfortunate though, that his sexuality is at all important to his politics. It's pride mixed with hope mixed with sadness at our current state of affairs. How nice it will be when a person's sexuality is no longer a matter worth fighting for.

Okay, so this article: nice, short, sweet, have fun in Winnipeg!

What really drew my attention were the comments from readers. I'm posting some of them here, because there is no paraphrasing that can do justice to the hateful, terrified and unfortunate points of view of some people:

SamSquantch writes:

"So when's the Hetero Pride parade? or is that not acceptable.
Be gay, be lesbian, be all you can be, but enough of trying to shove it down everyone else's throat already.
A lot of people just don't care anymore. I'm more disgusted with some of their antics than anything else, are they trying to get people to dislike them.

As for Glen Murray...... Go back to Ontario"

(Unfortunately) Unsurprising is that this sentiment is echoed in at least 5 or 6 other comments within the first 40 or so posted.

FlyByWire just posted as I was writing this entry:

"Sure Glen Murray was the first openly gay mayor in Canada but he wasn't a great mayor. Just because a person is gay doesn't mean he or she would do a much better job than a heterosexual or visible minority..."

First two sentences: good point, being gay doesn't have anything to do with how good a person is at being a politician and managing a community. Though, I'm not entirely sure why the writer chose to mention visible minorities in this case. So yes, so far, fairly good point made by this writer. Then they decided to continue. I lost faith:

"But if you want to see a monument of Glen Murray's term in Winnipeg, look no further than the St. Boniface bridge with the phallic shaped bridge support."

Okay... so. Let me get this straight (pun intended). You don't want politics to have anything to do with a person's sexuality (awesome), but you make sexual jokes about the result of a person's politics? I'm a little confused.

Confused though I am, at least now I know the true meaning of what it means to be 'gay' thanks to ThinkB4youDo:

"Who knew the word GAY meaning: joyful, happy, go-lucky, jovial, pleasant, kind, bright, showy, ... & other positive attributes; Has been usurped by homosexuals & lesbians as their collective identification word.

It would far better & original to quoin your own ID word.

The word Gay is also persons' name or surname, you are offending these people too. The word gay already has definitions, and doesn't merit being perverse in meaning.

To all homosexuals & lesbians there is no need to, have parades, flaunt your lifestyle, push it on others, especially to children, in schools, .... in many ways from parades to government.

You are discriminating against many others.

Surely you'd be the first to aggressively protest and object to heterosexuals having parades, .... and certainly apt to be strongly against catholic teachings, conservative Jewish teachings, Muslim teachings, etc..

Please Abandon the word gay to identify your group.

Do Respect yourselves and others Keep your lifestyles to your selves." (Emphasis mine)

Flabbergasted. Is that how you spell that? I don't even know how to start. And whenever that happens, it can only mean one thing: It's time to make a list of numbered points!

1. Usurped. Offending. Perverse. Them's some strong fightin' words. ThinkB4youDo does not like the gays. At all. But at least this writer is supportive enough to want the gays to find their own word, their own identity. That's a good thing.... Right?
   
   
2. I also love how all the people with the name Gay are offended by the fact that their name has been arbitrarily designated to men men who like other men. CHANGE YOUR NAME if it bothers you so very very much. Statements like this make me want to conduct polls. On people named Gay. About their name being synonymous with a sexual classification.
   
   I wonder what all the Gays in the world would have to say.
   
   
3. You know those guys, at the booths in the centre of the hallway in the mall? They sell Dead Sea Beauty products, Coriolis hair straighteners (I love mine) and various other things none of us need. THEY push their wares on people. I honestly believe the companies that own those little booths would have a parade if they thought it meant they'd better be able to "push it on others."
   
   Has ThinkB4youDo picked up a Cosmopolitan magazine lately? Maxim? They must have not, because anyone can see that these magazines are one obvious and very powerful way of shoving, forcing, ramming and stuffing heterosexuality down our throats. Don't even get me started on the most recent issue of Cosmo (page 56 - Why So Many Men Are Suckers For Skanks; page 79 - Clues That Tell You He's Fertile). There, I can't say anymore without making this post desperately long.
   
   
4. ESPECIALLY TO CHILDREN, IN SCHOOLS!!!!
   
   Where the hell did that come from?
   
   
5. I would like to point out that at least our writer has an open mind about religion. Ish.
   
   
6. "Your group." "Your lifestyles." Lesson to be learned: gays are different from us normal, heterosexual people. They've chosen to be different, so it's okay to persecute them. They could just choose to be normal again. Also, it's good to refer to them as gays, because they're all one group, totally homogeneous (pun, again, intended). Keep it simple: they're not people, they're gays. Oh wait, sorry, normal people invented the word gay and the _____'s stole it! Make up your own damn word!
   

Okay. No more words. I think my sarcastic anger speaks for itself.