to ask if all LGBTs approve of Pride festivals?

[MrsMuddlePluck]

Just to be clear - I will defend any LGBT to protect and preserve their rights. In the past I have stepped in to stop a customer patting my employee's cheek when he was intimidating him for no other reason than his being gay.

Now that we have equal rights and as a society we are more accepting of people whose lifestyle differs from ours, can we stop with the 'pride' marches and the flying of rainbow flags to show our solidarity? I know we still have some way to go but photos from Pride festivals 'celebrating' alternative lifestyles make me feel uncomfortable. Surely you don't need to dress up in sequins or bondage gear and flaunt it in the street, to make you a better LGBT? How do LGBTs really feel about this?

Our Council has just agreed to fund a pride festival, having withdrawn funding for our annual community festival. Can't we celebrate together instead of excluding straights from one, or LGBTs from the other?

We used to go to Pride for the post event clubbing.

It's great.

Where do you stand on Morris Dancing, OP?

Burn them! With their jingly bells and questionably effeminate handkerchiefs.

Questionably effeminate

Getting a teeny tiny whiff of goady-fuckery about this thread OP....

It's Morris dancing is an abomination

Ahem! Guys? OP can't be homophobic. She made it VERY clear in her first post that she's got GAY FRIENDS.

Pride lets people "flaunt" their sexuality freely. Until people can do so in general public without fear, we still need Pride. Have you ever had to hide your straightness OP?

As a straight, I don't show off my straight-ness

Do you hold hands? Kiss? See people like you on TV? In the media? Are you seen as 'the norm'? Are children told about having a boyfriend / girlfriend (someone of the opposite sex) as default?

Heteronormativity is everywhere.

Ok. I am probably going to get eaten alive here for clumsiness, but trying to join in iyswim. I think I do get what you mean about the bondage thing. I dont imagine that being a lesbian is neccessarily aligned to fetishism or S&M. So does the grouping together of all sex that isn't considered"mainstream" do a disservice to the movement of "normalising" homosexuality?
I suppose this is why pp have made the point about LGBT not bein an homogenous group.

A person isn't defined by their sexuality. To me, it's only a small part of your life, but someone gay often seems to make their whole existence about being gay. I, and I suspect many other people, really (really) don't care about a persons sexuality.

It's the way you used 'LGBT's' as a noun. It's like saying 'disableds' or 'blacks'.

I think lesbians and gay men have loads to be proud of I'm old enough to remember the marches against section 28 and the HIV epidemic and the way the community rallied round. I'm just about old enough to remember the amazing solid foundation that lesbians built for 2nd wave feminism

I hope everyone who goes has a bloody good time.

To me, it's only a small part of your life, but someone gay often seems to make their whole existence about being gay

And I suppose many gay people don't take part in Pride and just live their lives as most other people do. Whilst still having to fight off prejudice and hatred that still exists out there and IS making a resurgence in the current climate.

Well, maybe as long as people refer to 'LGBTs', as opposed to 'people', we'll always need pride.

You aren't defined by your sexuality until other people start defining you that way.

I'm straight. My sexuality doesn't define me because it's what people expect. I don't need to explain, or conceal, or be apologetic about it. I see pictures of straight couples kissing, holding hands, having children together, getting married, spending their old age together ALL the time. I pulled a random piece of junk mail out of my recycling box and it had three couples, all male/female.

I go to Pride events. And they are one of the very, very few places where people don't automatically assume that I am heterosexual, and where I am in a minority.

For lots of other people there it is one of the very few times all year round that they aren't the minority and where people don't make assumptions. (Although if they are bi, they might still feel that way).

A) LGBT people aren't just one group and like anything, there'll be people who love it and people who hate it

B) As the sister of an LGBT woman and the mother of a gay man, they personally really enjoy Pride and I've had great fun there with them.

Personally, there is still so much homophobia that I think pride festivals are more relevant now than ever.

Oh and by the way, straight people aren't banned from pride festivals. Far from it. As long as you get into the spirit of things you're treated no different than anyone else.

Anyway, if the local authority has decided to fund pride instead of your community festival, so what? You sound like the funding you get has been going for a few years, so why not let another group have the funding now?

I think community festivals are pointless we have had them for centuries and we have a community even if they don't go ahead.

Certainly we used to go along to Pride (I'm heterosexual) to show love and support for our gay pals.

Althkgh we didn't follow the guys to Soho

The more prides there are, the better. Not everyone has the means to get to one of the bigger ones. It can mean the world to someone to have a pride event in their small town.

Do you think local authorities have got money to chuck at festivals just for the fun of of it these days OP? My local Pride brings in tourists and visitors who wouldn't regularly come to the city. Never underestimate the power of the pink pound

As a straight, I don't show off my straight-ness, so why is it ok for some gays to show off their gay-ness [most gays don't, so should they be made to feel less gay?]?

"Showing off their gayness"? As in, being open and public that they're attracted to people of the same sex? What's wrong with that?

And do you never "show off your straightness"? Really? You never hold hands with an opposite sex partner? Never kiss them in public?

Your OP reads as deliberately goady.

Hi, I'm a LGBT as you put it... we ARE NOT equal in society, unfortunately not in this country and not in many, many other countries around the world. We face daily Discrimination and threat... here's some links that you might find useful if you really need to know why Pride is still so important.
and I'm sure deep down you realise that a handful of guys wearing leather don't represent the whole LGBT community any more than Nigel Farage represents all white men...

www.stonewall.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/pride-2016

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/10435718

I just wrote a long and earnest post but actually I think the OP is being a bit of a GF.

I'm going to have an extra flaunt and a double-shimmy at Pride just for you, OP.

Someone I used to work with posted something very thought provoking on Facebook. He works in the public sector in a department which I know for a fact is very accepting of all sexualities. Lives in London - a very open minded place. But he said that London Pride is the only time he feels truly safe to hold his husbands hand in public.

So while that's the case, I'd say Pride marches are still very much necessary.