Pride in Conversation

The Guardian carried a really interesting piece on Saturday featuring a conversation between Peter Tatchell and Julie Bindel on pride. There was much in what both said that I found myself agreeing with, but I probably came down supporting Tatchell overall.  I was particularly struck b his comments in relation to marriage. There are some who have been puzzled by his support for same-sex marriage given his queer philosophical roots - and his comments here reflect my own squaring of queer theory and a pro-same-sex marriage rights stance.  Check out the piece here.

Puzzlingly, the Guardian also featured a World Power List 100:  The Most Influential LGBT People in 2012, but it doesn't appear to be on their website.  Number 1 was Jane Lynch, Lord Alli comes in at number 2, Gok Wan at 3, Barney Frank at 4, Tammy Baldwin at 5, Tim Cook at 6, Ian McKellen at 7, Martina Navratilova at 8, Ellen DeGeneres at 9 and Clare Balding at 10.  The whole list is celeb-heavy with no academics featured.  One current lawyer - Daniel Winterfeldt - makes it to the list.   Although I'm not sure this is a fair list, it probably does say about the visibility of power - and our collective understanding of influence.  For me, the teacher out in the classroom influencing the lives of countless children through their simple existence is more influential on those children than a distant celebrity.  Those fearful of queer power have long recognised this.  Meanwhile, gay activists are all too often seduced by the glitz, glamour and illusion of power and influence which celebrity often offers.

Have Pride

Ari Bendersky (I have no idea if that's a real name) has written a piece for The Advocate asking whether we still need Gay Pride.  Bendersky concludes that we ought to be conscious of our Pride the other 364 days of the year, and extend those values we seem to embrace during Pride, applying them to our daily lived experience.

The story is of course prompted by the arrival of Pride 'season'.  That annual series of Pride events up and down the UK and across the globe.  Some events have already taken place - notably Birmingham Pride last weekend.  Sunderland and Northern Pride's will take place later in the year along with the large London, Brighton and Manchester events.   These vary from vast commercial undertakings with international music acts to a small gathering with a couple of burger vans and a few singers who might be found stocking the shelves of the local Lidl by day.  Yet, all are - I would suggest - important.  Bendersky's point is a valid one but the process of knowing that there are these gatherings of people who identify in the same way is vital for any minority.  It fosters a sense of shared identity, shared lived experience and shared hope for the future.

So yes, Bendersky is right about the idealism of extending Pride values to other days of the year, but don't underestimate the value of a damned good party.

Read the full article here.

Sunderland Pride Launch Research Survey

Readers in North East England may be interested to hear Sunderland Pride has today launched a research survey to collect opinions on the way the project is currently running. Membners of the community are being asked to take the time to answer a few short questions on the 2011 event as well as the new services that have been implemented in the past year, the survey also asks how the event can be improved this year.

Sunderland Pride is the organisation behind the annual LGB&T celebration event in Sunderland, that made its innaugral appearance in the city on Sunday 25th September 2011. Sunday 23rd September 2012 will be the second Sunderland Pride event to be held. Last year’s event was attended by around 3,000 members of the community.

The survey runs until April and can participants can participate in the survey via http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5M38PMN, more information on the survey can be found on Sunderland Pride’s official website www.sunderlandpride.co.uk. Alternatively, you can request the questionnaire via email, Info@sunderlandpride.co.uk.

Beware the Pedobear!

Pedobear, Pedobear, does whatever a Pedobear does...as Homer Simpson didn't quite sing.

Some of you might remember a Brass Eye Paedophile special from a few years back in which they satirised the way the media and politicians were treating the subject of paedophilia.  Readers in the UK can watch that episode via 4OD (check it out here).  Even Chris Morris and Brass Eye couldn't make up a story that appears on the Huffington Post today surrounding the latest twist in the 'Pedobear' saga.

This is a cartoon bear originally intended as a joke on paedophiles, acting as a (strangely cute) representation of a paedophile.  However, the image apparently then became re-owned by paedophiles as a symbol of pride.  However - and you couldn't make this up - the New Mexico Attorney General's Office is now investigating following a surge in sightings of bear depictions on vehicles.  They apparently fear - don't laugh at the back - that this may suggest an increase in sex offender behaviour in the Albuquerque area.  Fascinating and bonkers in equal measure.  Check out the full story here.  The HuffPo piece helpfully points out that 'It is not illegal for people to display the Pedobear image in public.'  Well if it was, there would be an amazing first amendment case to bring.  It could finish poor Justice Scalia off!

The piece also explains that 'Some people may be displaying them as a joke, but the attorney general's office said they are taking the bear images seriously and are trying to get the word out.'  Look out for them in Halfords!

Happy Pride

Wishing everyone a wonderful day today at the historic first Sunderland Pride.  More info on the Sunderland Pride website available here.

Sunderland Pride 2011

Sunday sees the first Sunderland Pride arrive - a major even in the North East.  Lots of details on the Sunderland Pride website which you can check out here.  They've also confirmed today that everything is set to go ahead, posting the following on their website...

However, all activities are now green-lighted so you can all look forward to a full day of festivities on Sunday 25th September…

We kick off at noon when the Mayor and Mayoress of the City of Sunderland lead the first ever Sunderland Pride Parade from the Civic Centre through the city centre to Park Lane. Feel free to line the route which is detailed on this website and in the official “Pride Guide” programme.

Thereafter we have an afternoon of free entertainment in Park Lane followed by a variety of events in our normal Tuesday night venues.

Please turn out in your masses to support Sunderland Pride in our inaugural Carnival – you won’t be disappointed. You will also have the opportunity to purchase a Sunderland Pride souvenir item..

Available will be :

I Luv Sunderland Pride 2011 T-Shirts (sure to become collectors’ items in the future). Available in Black, White or Pink for a mere £10.00.

Bracelets, keyrings, badges and further assorted bric-a-brac also on sale at reasonable prices.

Well done to all those who have been working to get the project this far.  Fingers crossed for fine weather!

Follow Friday: Manchester Pride

Last week I announced that I'd be selecting one group or individual for a special twitter 'follow Friday' shout-out. This week it goes to @manchesterpride who are busy launching a fantastic ten day festival as I type. You can get full details on Pride 2011 on their website here, and you can also download a brilliant App to your smartphone (which I'm currently playing with).

This a special celebratory 21st for the festival - an amazing achievement and extraordinary when you reflect upon how it's changed. The organisation isn't just about a once a year party however, and they recently launched a fantastic Out in the Past website which you can check out here.

A Matter of Pride

25 September 2011 should mark a historic date for the gay community in Sunderland, offering the first Pride in the city. I say 'should' as last year was meant to mark the first 'Sunderland Pride' but it collapsed in confused circumstances. Ryan Houstan has written on the origins of the current group, describing how 'it was back in October 2009, when they were sitting in a bar having a few drinks and putting the world to rights, that Ramsey and Taylor were struck by the idea that Sunderland should have its own Pride.'

Spark FM - the radio station of Sunderland University - has been an important forum for interviews and news (and searching the web, is the only place I can get a clear line up for the event). I was struck, as I read more about the plans for 2011, with the similarities with another northern Pride -Huddersfield.

Whilst Huddersfield has a working website, Sunderland does not. It is a small plucky venture with a Twitter account (151 followers) and a Facebook groups page (1683 members). Held together by a small group, the event is rightly modest and realistic in outlook as evidenced by the organiser 'Camp Arnie' in this interview.

Just making something happen is an important first step that requires considerable effort by all involved. However, I find it hard to see who it will pull in beyond a small Sunderland crowd. I hope I'm wrong but whilst other events - notably Newcastle's Northern Pride event -have made sure they've got a clear workable website alongside other paltforms to distribute information, but communication from Sunderland Pride has been less than ideal. Such short-falls can perhaps be forgiven as teething problems.

It seems a small but determined band. Contrast that to the mass volunteer events for Manchester Pride which along with Blackpool, Brighton an London serve as destination events. Of course, Sunderland realistically can not compete with those events and that's the important point. Not being Manchester or London tells us what smaller Prides such as Sunderland's are not, but they do not tell us what they are.

This is the central dilemma facing small Pride events. Is it an excuse for a party? Is it about increasing 'visibility', does it raise funds? Does it foster a sense of community? All important questions. For me, the bigger question for the city and wider community is whether the event is outward looking or inward looking.

Does it seek to have a private party that can be cheerfully ignored by everyone else (as happens in large part at Newcastle's Pride) or does it create a large event that's hard to miss - as in Manchester, Brighton or London? A parade helps to do this, but a small group of people hinders rather than helps.

Thus, these smaller events are more often about saying to one another 'we exist', but unless they engage with wider audiences, it's just the same old bar crowd meeting up on a different day. At the very least, it needs to draw in people from across the region and penetrate the public's consciousness.

I hope Sunderland Pride comes off this year - it is located between freshers week and the first week of term which may give it a boost with students - but whatever happens, there are wider questions for us all about the purpose of these events, large and small.

UPDATE: Thanks to @markglover for flagging up this lovely blog post by Miche Doherty regarding Pride in Belfast.

Brighton Pride Needs Overhaul?

One of the regular criticisms to come out of the queer movement is to target pride events. Too often commercial enterprises, far removed from their roots and 'core community', they are increasingly criticised from within the LGBTQ community rather than from outside it. The comments reported in Pink News yesterday from a former Brighton Pride Chair will therefore come of little surprise to many. David Harvey ran Brighton pride between 2003 and 2006 and has now suggested it's become too straight and needs an overhaul.

Read the full story here.

Pride, Social Documentary and Jumping the Paywall

The Sunday Times Spectrum section is always enjoyable and this week features three photographs from Elaine Stapleton taken at Manchester Pride earlier this year. The photographs feature gay men dressed as anti-gay protesters and it's a rather wonderful satire. Annoyingly I can't link to the images as Murdoch wants you to pay to access them. The flaw in this is that they are freely available (with more pics, and in full colour) on the Manchester Pride website. You can check them all out here and I've included a couple above.

Poz & Bareback Pride

We're into the Pride season with various events held across the UK and indeed the world. Recent years have seen an apparent growth in the number of sites that apply the term 'pride' to being HIV positive and to the fetishisation of bareback sex. This site sells a lot of T-shirts and additional gear with Poz Pride/Bareback pride logos and it left me wondering if they will make an appearance at any Pride events this year. I suspect they would go down badly (even though I suspect a significant number - perhaps even a majority - present at these pride events bareback). If anyone does see them please add a comment/send me a tweet. Would you wear one of these t-shirts?

Northern Pride: What's Going On?

I just took a look at the Northern Pride website where an interesting post has appeared. Northern Pride is essentially Newcastle Pride (with some attempt at pulling in the surrounding area). The notice says:

'dpr no longer supports northernpride because of what dpr feels is bad work practices towards its volunteers.

dpr regrets any inconvenience caused to the general public for the closure of this site.
Legal Notice:

A Legal letter has now been drafted and posted to Northern Pride Events Limited forbidding use of the circle and star logo which is the copyright owner of dpr.

If you are using the logo on Facebook or npride.org.uk then you should withdraw from using it immediately.

Microsoft, owners of Facebook have also been sent a copy of this letter.
dpr

Friday 29th January 2010'

So what on earth is going on? A couple of days earlier on Northern Prides Facebook page, someone wrote:

'Does anyone know what is going on with Northern Pride? I ask as I have emailed the committee and heard nothing at all!It seems that not olny are the meetings no longer being advertised to their own comittee, and requests for details are seemingly being ignored, now it seems the web site is closed.Oh, would it also be p...osible to finally get the accounts out?In general WHAT IS GOING ON!'

The response from Northern pride was:

'Hi Mitch, unfortunately we're having some trouble with the website which means we can't email at the mo.Planning for 2010 is underway and there's a pretty ambitious budget, anyone out there who'd like to help us approach funders/sponsors then get in touch!'

No kidding guys! Hopefully these are just blips (lets not forget the issues Manchester Pride- then Mardi Grads - has a few years back-blips happen) and things will get back on track but the organisation needs to at least sort it's website and clearly explain what is going on. It does look like theya re currently facing some major problems. Incidentally, the FB page for Northern Pride is still using the logo so we'll have to see how things unfold.

Moscow Pride to be held in...Germany?!

Pink News reports that the Commissioner for Human Rights in Moscow, Alexander Muzykantsk, 'has suggested that Russian gays and lesbians should hold gay Pride marches in Germany'. In an interview with a Russian magazine, he apparently suggested Berlin as it is 'de facto the world capital for sexual minorities'. Poor Mr Muzykantsk seems to have had some difficulty with the word 'Pride'. It does rather defeat the object of the event if it is in another country. Of course, these is a history of violence at previous Moscow Pride events (apparently originating with the Police) and the annual festival has long courted controversy.

I'm not sure whether this is a calculated 'we don't want homos here' measure or is a sign of ignorance in the true sense of the word, a lack of awareness about the importance of Pride. I'm therefore reluctant to say rise up and march against this Russian barmpot (at least not yet) but rather, continue the dialogue and emphasise the importance of this event to Muzykantsk and others like him.

Blow the Whistle on Homophobia

I've had the press release/circular forwarded on to me about the Newcastle event as aprt of IDAHO (International Day Aginst Homophobia) which is this coming Saturday. I've reproduced the details below:

There are 77 countries in the world today where it is still a criminal offence to be gay. These countries punish women, men and children because of their sexual orientation and in seven countries the punishment is death. Even in countries like the UK where it is not a criminal offence to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender we still face homophobia, transphobia and discrimination.

International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) provides a platform for everyone to make a powerful statement to demand improvements for the quality of life for LGBT people both overseas and here in the UK. It can be used to raise awareness of homophobic issues that are negatively impacting on people’s lives and to showcase success stories where a positive change has been achieved.

Newcastle’s LGBT Issues Network plan to hold our annual event: ‘Blow The Whistle On Homophobia’ on Saturday 16th May at 12 noon. The event will be at Monument, Newcastle, with an information stall, music and a speaker who will call on participants to make ‘one minute’s noise’ to demand an end to homophobia.

Everyone can take part: they just need to turn up with bells, whistles, drums and any other noisy method to get people’s attention!

This will be followed by a film showing, music and refreshments at the Side Cinema from 1pm. We will be showing Stand up To Hatred, a film celebrating LGBT community action in the North East and Against A Trans Narrative, which was internationally previewed at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival last month.

Castro Christian Protests

I've just been working through the links on this blog (something I don't do nearly enough) and I was struck by a story on the Elventh Avenue South blog. A post from last week drew attention to protests between what seem to be largely gay men and a Christian group. It's also worth reading this post to get a view of the Christian rally that ultimately led to this protest. Whilst I do think the "right answer" is to be tolerant of this intolerance I also have a pang of pride that these members of the Castro community have stood up so proudly to this attack. You can view video of the clash below:

Homophobic Bullying

Whilst the last post focused upon tensions in Manchester, a news story on Pink News focuses on London and the decision by Boris Johnson to cut funding to Soho-Pride and re-direct that funding to tackling homophobic bullying in schools. I'm not an expert on London events but it does seem that Bo-Jo may have got it right and given the choice between community projects and a good party, community projects should be the priority.

Revisiting Community Tensions

Last year I blogged about community tensions in the run up to Pride. Most Pride events have arguments and tensions but the one surrounding Manchester cut to the core of modern activism - who is pride for. Some voluntary groups complained that the price of stalls meant they simply couldn't afford to participate in pride and due to the costs of the armbands, nor could many of the people they want to reach out to. It was an argument that I thought had value then and David Henry (who you see in the original Channel M video) has now commented that the same issues persist this year. Queer Youth Network TV have produced a video that highlights some of the issues. The sound is a bit dodgy in places but the message is an important one.

Where Do Old Elephant's Go?

There is a lot of mythology surrounding old elephant's who seem to vanish to an unknown place as they come to the end of their lives. This place is called the Elephant's Graveyard. As I watched US series Brothers & Sisters this week (yes my fondness for US soaps is once again influencing this blog - apologies) there was a moving scene when Saul (the uncle) finally comes out. I've embedded the clip below. It's a terribly moving scene in which Saul asks his gay nephew "tell me how I can be a gay man at my age?". As I look at gay culture whether it be magazines, bars and clubs or even the virtual community I'm prompted to ask "where do the old gay men and women go?'. Like the elephant's of mythology they vanish from our culture. The multi-generation inhabitants of gay commercial space in bars and clubs that was still present when I came out ten years ago seems much less present. Queer culture is more youth and image conscious than ever. The beautiful people syndrome that Whittle has written about is ever dominant. What then for Saul and older gay men? He can not, as he desires, have his time back and the years that stretch before him are full of uncertainty. After a a weekend of massive Pride events in London the gay community must collectively ponder, where do our old elephant's go?

Pride Season & Pacha NYC

We really are in the middle of Pride season with New York Pride taking place last week, London Pride taking place today and Northern Pride - the Newcastle event taking place last week. It hadn't occurred to me before, but the Newcastle event does sound like a make of bread. Anyway, I'm sure it will be a terrific event. According to Skrufff-E #369 circulated this week, the night before NYC Pride, Pacha was raided by party police thus apparently buggering up it's Pride plans. The story states: 'New York party police raided Pacha last Friday (June 27) a day before the Chelsea superclub was due to present two nights of Gay Pride parties featuring Victor Calderone and a massive Saint at Large event on the Sunday. Edge New York columnist (and regular Skrufff contributor) Matt Kalkhoff said gay venue Splash was also ‘over-run by police’ on Friday, after Pacha was shuttered earlier in the evening..'

You can get a little feel for NYC Pride in the RYANISLAND Films video below. The show is presented by Ryan Wolowski who is bouncier than a rubber ball and appears to have more energy than a fusion reactor. It doesn't half look a wet NYC!

North East Pride

The last issue of OutNorthEast reported on the developments both with N-Pride - the new Pride event in Newcastle and plans for another 'Supergay' weekend in Middlesbrough. N-Pride announced a huge Street Party around Newcastle’s Gay Quarter on Saturday 12th July. They also announced plans for a main stage, Women’s tent, Market Place and Fun Fair rides. They also have a website up and running though it currently just consists of a countdown: http://www.n-pride.org/

Meanwhile in Middlesbrough organisers have just announced the second year of events will take place between Thursday 11th September and Sunday 14th and are hoping to attract
more people, introducing Live Music, Comedy, Theatre and Film to the running order.

I wish all the organisers every success with this. It's really overdue but I'm guessing that's probably more down to the lack of commitment amongst the larger gay community rather than the people who have down taken on these projects, with all the work that's involved.

The only addition I would suggest is the kind of academic element that is so common in Pride events across the Atlantic (and btw in Brighton this year) - hold a half day/full day academic event as part of the pride festival in which north east academics can come together, share ideas, papers and get in touch with the activist base.

The msot recent issue of OutNorthEast can be viewed at: http://www.outnortheast.com/dokumenty/1201890763_issue8web.pdf