[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Malthus]

Edmonton Pride Festival cancelled - could not reconcile with complaints from people of colour and others claiming Pride was too white.

Shouldn't that be a rather straightforward fix?

Apparently not.  Here's the lists of demands:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14YbfuNswFwFyIT3eTHac5Ekf8LHGudz7/view?fbclid=IwAR023C2yNaor2GTtM4Eg2vmr2MFS198vw7htUVDpnsLDWQFp18k5JRa_Pbo

It's a lot of heavy hard left intersectionalism, plus 3 of the 7 demands were for money.

From speaking with my gay friends in Toronto about the similar problems Pride has here, the real issue seems to be as follows.

Pride is simply a victim of the success of gay rights in society at large.

In the past, gay people of all types were united by a common experience of oppression, and their "demands" were pretty simple--to not be oppressed for their sexuality. Standing up for oneself, to declare that one is not ashamed of one's sexual orientation, that a gay person is the equal of a straight person and deserved equal consideration before the law: these were all "radical" positions.

For whatever reasons, society has evolved so as to make all of these formerly "radical" positions mainstream. It isn't like anti-gay bigotry disappeared, but it became very much a minority view (at least, in the big urban centres where things like Pride Parades are held). "Gay Pride", in the original sense, ceased to be "radical". Corporations were happy to find Pride floats, the cops to march in Pride parades, etc.

However, this undermined the old-school gay activists. What use is there being an "activist" when everything you agitated for becomes mainstream? So the old school activists started to be elbowed aside (or just stepped aside, because they no longer had the fire). The new activists, to stay radical, had to adopt increasingly radical positions--that capitalism is evil, the cops are forever the enemy, etc. They turned the weapons of activism against the old activists--a bunch of increasingly successful middle-class types, mostly White; how could they claim to represent the oppressed when they are not actually oppressed? 

So the whole thing becomes less and less about being gay, and more and more about other issues of alleged societal oppression: and the bulk of gays become less and less interested. After all, many of them are now married (a right they fought for), and well represented in the very systems (such as working for big corporations) that the new activists believe are the root of all evil!

[crazy canuck]

Same thing here in Vancouver. 

[Josephus]

I'm  a bit late with this, I know. But

for BB.

Layin Pipe by David Wilcox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw8S_Kv89IU

[Razgovory]

Edmonton Pride Festival cancelled - could not reconcile with complaints from people of colour and others claiming Pride was too white.

Shouldn't that be a rather straightforward fix?

Apparently not.  Here's the lists of demands:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14YbfuNswFwFyIT3eTHac5Ekf8LHGudz7/view?fbclid=IwAR023C2yNaor2GTtM4Eg2vmr2MFS198vw7htUVDpnsLDWQFp18k5JRa_Pbo

It's a lot of heavy hard left intersectionalism, plus 3 of the 7 demands were for money.

God that's fucking tedious.

[Monoriu]

Gay pride parade was one of the culture shocks I had in Vancouver. 

[Admiral Yi]

Guys showing off their boners in the gym locker room was one of the culture shocks I had in DC.

[garbon]

Gay pride in most of the West is simply unnecessary these days.

[Valmy]

Gay pride in most of the West is simply unnecessary these days.

Yeah, it was becoming just another civic celebration like St. Patrick's Day in New York or something.

[crazy canuck]

Gay pride in most of the West is simply unnecessary these days.

Well it is now a fun party

[dps]

Gay pride in most of the West is simply unnecessary these days.

Gays should be just as ashamed as heterosexuals.   

[garbon]

Gay pride in most of the West is simply unnecessary these days.

Well it is now a fun party

Is it? In my experience it has mainly meant that my regular bars are overcrowded and are putting up substantially higher prices.

[crazy canuck]

Gay pride in most of the West is simply unnecessary these days.

Well it is now a fun party

Is it? In my experience it has mainly meant that my regular bars are overcrowded and are putting up substantially higher prices.

Street party 

[garbon]

Yeah, crowd of pushy people putting trash everywhere. At least that is what London Pride looked like last year.

[Zoupa]

That list of demands is fucking hilarious 

[Razgovory]

Yeah, crowd of pushy people putting trash everywhere. At least that is what London Pride looked like last year.

Oh come off your high horse.  A parade is a parade.  It's suppose to be fun.