I run a LGBT Pride: AMA

[lgbtpride]

Long time lurker but have NC for this.

I run an LGBT Pride event. I want to deal with some of the nonsense theories that we welcome pedophiles or have banned lesbians.

Ask me anything. (Disclaimer: I won't answer anything specific that might out me.)

Fetish and kink are paraphilia and have nothing to do with sexuality or sexual orientation.

Part of the problem I have with paraphilia being part of Pride is that public performance of the paraphilia is often part of the sexual arousal. Therefore onlookers are being co-opted into it without consent.

I don't want a man in a nappy getting an erection from forcing me to see him out in public wearing a nappy. It's a violation.

Which pride are you running so I can avoid it?

@HermioneWeasley Intersex genital 'correction' surgery still happens in a majority of countries and children are left scarred for life without their consent. Just one of many issues on which Intersex groups campaign at Pride.

I really don't understand why kink and fetishism is welcomed to the point that it may exclude same sex families with children from Pride, if they feel it's inappropriate? Where are those families supposed to go if they're being excluded from LGBT community events?

Given kink and fetishism isn't exclusively an LGBT thing, it seems an own goal to prioritise something that many people of all orientations still see as deviant/adult-eyes-only, vs showing children & teens (i.e. future voters) that gay & trans partnerships are equal & valid.

@HunterBidensBurnerPhone I agree that his erection would be a violation and also of the criminal law. Rightly so.

How lovely. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I don't want to go somewhere where there is inequality based on your own comments.

What does it mean when you tell straight people to ‘stay in their lane’ and not to ‘take space from lgbtq people’? It sounds very unwelcoming and even hostile to me.

@cabbageking Then I'm afraid there are upwards of 200 Prides in the U.K. you need to avoid.

It's an event for the LGBT+ community. We welcome allies but simply we ask that they are respectful and don't take space intended for LGBT+ people. It's not hostile and sorry if my wording was inelegant.

Hi OP,

What do you think about that time lesbians got spat at at Lancaster Pride and the CEO told them to 'Fuck off you fucking dogs'?

https://fairplayforwomen.com/pride/

What do you think about that time at Manchester Pride when one of the organisers said from the stage that lesbians should be 'dragged off by their saggy tits'?

https://medium.com/@janesprocket/on-misogyny-on-drag-or-how-it-became-ok-to-say-drag-them-off-by-their-saggy-tits-2765873c1dfc

What do you think about that time lesbians at Edinburgh pride had people yelling and blowing whistles in their faces, trying to tear up their signs and throwing bottles at them, so they ended up leaving for their own safety?

https://womansplaceuk.org/2019/06/23/lesbians-at-edinburgh-pride-a-personal-account/

What do you think about that time lesbians at Bradford Pride were reported to the police for t-shirts saying 'Lesbian = Female Homosexual' and were then called 'bigots' and a 'hate group' from the stage, thus inviting the intimidation that followed?

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/17679269.lesbian-protesters-bradford-pride-claim-police-asked-hate-group/

What do you think about that time a kidnapper, torturer and attempted murderer attended London Trans Pride and yelled through a PA system, 'If you see a TERF, punch them in the fucking face,' and everyone cheered?

https://twitter.com/katgorbeh/status/1677790606561628160

You say, 'They are welcome to organise their own Pride if they don't like ours' but that's not true is it? This is what happens when lesbians try to hold their own events:

Would you call a man who likes women straight? Would you still call him that if he put a dress on?
If so, why are "lesbian" transwomen welcome at pride?
If not, what about the dress makes them not straight?

@PencilsInSpace

No harassment or behaviour like that is acceptable at any Pride. No one - trans or GC activists - should be coming to Pride to deliberately wind up the other. Sadly there are far too many in both groups who go around looking for trouble.

At the end of the day we're just a group of volunteers trying to organise an event and sometimes both groups are wholly bloody unreasonable.

Having spent years already 'debating' this, I'm not getting into the debate here.

AMA on anything else to do with Pride.

What does “taking space” from lgbtq people involve though? Standing on a pavement where an lgbtq person could have stood, if the non lgbtq person had stayed at home? Can you be clearer please because I’m really confused?

Also, do you welcome anyone who can answer the question “What is a woman” with biological facts? If not, why not?

If you won’t answer the second part of @GrumpyPanda’s question, @lgbtpride, how about the first part:

”So how would you react if somebody shows up with a "Choke on my ladydick" placard. Laugh it off? Ban it? How about "Kill terfs"?”

I would remove all of those signs from my Pride.

In relation to my earlier question, what's the aim of your pride event if it centres the kink community ahead of same sex families? Without wanting to sound rude, what's the point?

As a lesbian, who lives an ordinary life that is no different than that of my straight friends and family (other than the sex of my partner) I would completely avoid your pride.
I have a professional job and have absolutely no interest in kink or fetish, if I did I certainly wouldn’t parade it round the streets!
Pride was important when we didn’t have rights, nowadays it’s become a carnival of obscenity in my view and I certainly wouldn’t go or take DC! I think it’s actually really regressive and harmful for the LGB community to be aligning with all these things we have nothing in common with!

@InShockHusbandLeaving For example, you're at a Pride in a park and the capacity is full. If you're an ally, we'd ask you to leave for a while to make space.

Then why give him a legitimised space to validate it?

For us in the Britain you might be right. But we don't have to look far overseas to see lesbians facing terrible discrimination and we highlight this at every Pride.

Job is most certainly not done.

Well yes but dancing in the local park surrounded by men in fetish gear isn’t going to influence the laws of Iran, is it.
If anything the merging of sexuality with public displays of sexual fetishes would probably make conservative governments think they had the right idea!!

How do you think its going to persuade for e.g. the Saudis that LGBT folks are respectful members of society, by holding an event featuring exhibitionism and kink culture? How does thar benefit lesbians facing torture and corrective rape in other countries?

@LardyCakeAgain @BrokenBrit

The awareness that we raise amongst our local community is important. And we donate to and support organisations working with women in (as an example) Afghanistan.

But again, what has kink got to do with it?