Is Pride really just turning in to one big kink fest?

I saw more children at Pride this year, as in the 12-14 age group, apparently out without parents. There were more adults showing skin in sexualised costumes too. I think this mix has child protection concerns written all over it, specially with the internet.

A drag queen in a thong gave me side eye. I don't get the aggression? Is Pride not meant to be a fun, colourful uplifting experience?

I grew up around wonderful gay men who were absolute gentlemen. They came of age in the era of having to hide their sexuality in wider society. I was told one of them hated Pride. Pride is not really about homosexual rights anymore, is it?

Isn't the problem that Pride is now trying to hold together too many groups with too many disparate aims. The gay men and women I know have always been very cynical about pride. Largely because they're just like the rest of us, except in same sex relationships instead of opposite sex relationships. It's all very boring. That's why corporations need the drag queens to make it interesting. None of it is tenable any longer.

tastefulrainbow I know it’s really tedious isn’t it. I can’t stand him yet there seems to be a concerted attempt to insert him into random threads on this board as if he’s some beloved mascot of the MN Massive. Not. The. Case.

Idk why we have been suddenly visited by coachloads of visitors from the L F obsessive fan club and his obsessive haters club but it’s tiresome. I’m going to report every post that mentions his name from now on!

why would anyone start defending Laurence Fox

We need all the allies we can get in this battle.

It's male exhibitionism, pure and simple.

Pride should be about acceptance and respect of others

But I don't accept furries and nude men swinging their knackers around in front of children.

Some truly unbelievable comments on this thread...

Let me start by saying that I totally object to people (men, women, gay, straight or whatever) forcing their nudity on others in public. Exposing your genitalia in public spaces is against the law and it is unacceptable, Pride or not.

But:

• why would anyone start defending Laurence Fox and making him into some kind of free speech hero? the man used a swastika on his Twitter profile which is beyond vile.
• kink and fetish wear and culture has always been associated with gay culture. Being into kinky sex with another consenting adult does not make you a pervert. Anyone remember the guy out of the Village People wearing all that leather? are we suggesting anyone watching that band was traumatised for life or immediately felt compelled to buy a whip and chains?
• Pride started as a political, activist reaction against the persecution of people of all walks of life simply because of their sexuality. It has always and should always be edgy and political too. During the miners' strikes activists fund-raised to support the miners and their families. They marched together at Pride. Pride is not a Disney parade aimed at bored children where everything you will see will be sanitised
• The people saying LGBTQ+ should aim to be safe and beige and just match the heterosexual ideal...I mean where do I even start to unpick this... Pride should be about acceptance and respect of others, not about uniformity and conforming to whatever middle-class straight ideal some people aim for. I am sorry if you only find some type of LGBTQ+ acceptable (it seem the less flamboyant and the more cardigan and slippers loving the better...) but this is a wide-ranging community, no a an Abercrombie and Fitch advert.

By the way I am a woman, bi and a feminist.

@Artichokeleaves
If I could star your posts I would!

I went to Pride in Birmingham in early 2000s as a student with my housemate and her girlfriend. There was a fair amount of obvious gay male sexuality going on, men in arseless trousers, some in leather or thongs etc. It definitely wasn’t a place for kids but it wasn’t a kink-fest either.

So which came first- bring-your-kids for a family fun day or the extension of what Pride is about to TQ+ with extra kink? Or did the two evolve together?

@Artichokeleaves I think I love you 😍 You’ve said everything I’d like to have said, but far more articulately! 👏👏👏👏👏

I went to Pride a couple of times in the late ‘90s, I wouldn’t go anywhere near it now. I’m worried that all the progress we’ve made for LGB people is being undone by the TQ+ lobbyists: I sense a big backlash is coming and we’re going to get dragged in to it 😕

The women’s toilets were full of other friendly gay men

That's even worse 😒

I should have seen that one coming.
The women’s toilets were full of other friendly gay men and for the record I would never otherwise go in the women’s toilets but the whole place was pretty much peak sausage party.

Gay men are often the most misogynistic.

@Artichokeleaves I love your posts, here and on other threads. I'm probably still suffering from 'be kind' and wary of cognitive bias. I am more inclined to think the whole thing has been captured by TQ+, especially the +.

I remember being forcefully redirected from the men’s to the women’s toilets in a very crowded pub by a friend (gay man) who thought that my (straight man) circuits might be permanently fried by what was going on in the gents,

Thanks a bunch, friendly gay man. Because women’s facilities must always be open to any man who wants to use them. Male distress must always outweigh female distress.

So you don't go, your knowledge is only what you're seeing and hearing in the press and here, but you don't think the reality is what LGB people here are explaining it is?

This whole personal reality thing that only happens to you is lovely, but you really can't require that other people agree that they share it with you, or call it objective fact.

@IcakethereforeIam ha ha, sorry, no, I just meant that gay male culture can be very debauched indeed, and that this usually is kept limited to gay clubs/spaces, but kind of overflows during Pride. My point, sort of point, being that it’s always been thus. Or at least has long been thus.

I don't think adults getting up to stuff in the privacy of their own...public toilet is the problem. That happening causes me no surprise and I give zero fucks. I've not been to the smoke for a few years, wtf is happening on Leicester Square? Why shouldn't people take their kids there? Is it all the time, just during pride, at night? Do I really want to know?

I remember being forcefully redirected from the men’s to the women’s toilets in a very crowded pub by a friend (gay man) who thought that my (straight man) circuits might be permanently fried by what was going on in the gents, so I think the “Purge” element has always been there, and always is there in certain sections of the gay community, it just spills out more into the public sphere during Pride.
And yeah, there is perhaps more insistence on “being seen” by some more politicised (humourless) elements, that might even detract from the free wheeling atmosphere of yesteryear? I’m not sure it’s a massive issue in terms of safeguarding kids unless you need to regularly walk them across Leicester Square for some reason, which nobody does.

I don't go to Pride marches, so my knowledge of them must be skewed by the 'out there' stuff that makes the papers, twitter and, sometimes, threads like these. I choose to believe that most of it is people, grown ups, enjoying themselves, feeling safe, dressing up, and hooking up if they want to. I hope that naked perverts, puppy play - bring the kids!, is rare but should be better policed. But I'm being given the impression that pride is like the purge but for kink. I don't think this is the reality yet.

IMO it's all become a bit of a competition of who can be the most inclusive and non-judgemental. No-one wants to be the one to say things have gone too far.

I agree. I was at pride marches 20 years ago and there were plenty of blokes in leather chaps with their arses out then. It’s never been a family event

The last Pride I attended was Cardiff Mardi Gras in perhaps 2008-9. I was there distributing leaflets promoting various lesbian groups and 90% of the women I approached said more or less indignantly 'I'm not lesbian!' There was a big funfair and boy bands and it felt like a day out for straight people and their children, with the drag queens and the guys in chaps with their bums out like a sideshow. After a couple of hours, as the proportion of drunk young men staggering around increased, me and the other lesbians of my acquaintance went off to find a bar and have a grumble. I've not been back since.