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sparrowsion) wrote2024-06-19 07:17 pm
sparrowsion) wrote2024-06-19 07:17 pm
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It is Pride in the sleepy Welsh town
It was Pride in town on Saturday. For the last week (or more) there have been assorted varieties of pride flags amongst the Ddreigiau Goch hanging from the flagpoles along the high street, and rainbow "love is love" themed displays in most of the shop windows. (Notably not joining in has been the healthfood shop which stocks anti-vax and transphobic literature.)
I didn't have anything to do with it, because none of the advertising explicitly linked "Pride" and "Diversity" to anything LGBTQ+, and someone I know had had trouble getting the organisers to do anything about their apparent trans-exclusionism (leading with: they'd only had six-stripe flags flying, no progress pride—a couple of progress ones did turn up, but it's still a mixture, including and eight-stripe or two and the Welsh pride ddraig goch on a six-stripe field).
This year, it might be my last here, so I thought I'd see what was happening. The promotion has been much the same. And … my instincts about it were largely correct. It's an event organised by middle-aged, middle-class white men with husbands and 2.4 dogs, whose "pride" is in having become pillars of the community while openly gay. It's a celebration of how far we've come since our youth, not a demonstration against the discrimination and increasing political hostility some of us are still facing. It's putting on a show, complete with drag acts, for the cishets, where the only political message is the implicit "Look at what you'd be missing out on without us". It's rainbow face paint for the kids, an excuse to bring in some food stalls and have a street party for the town. And of course a parade, and it is a parade, not a march.
But it is, I suppose, a beach-head, a line in the sand that says "This is all socially acceptable. You are not taking this away." And, critically, it doesn't pull the ladder up behind itself. Sure, it's not helping, but neither is it saying that this is enough.
It rained on the parade. Well, chucked a few drops at it, anyway. I'd post pictures and video somewhere, but I was using an old compact which has good discreet shoot-from-the-hip properties but honestly none of them came out that well, and I don't have a working video editor at the moment, and there so many children I really don't want to put anything up remotely public. And when I say lots of children … there was an entire block (of six, I think) of the parade which was the Guides and Brownies marching with a big "Guide with Pride" banner.
And it was that structured, blocked out by organisation, with an open-top bus at the front, and the town fire engine at the rear. And even big enough, and open enough, so have some kind of kink representation. Even if it was just three guys in street-friendly leathers with a couple of leather pride flags. It went from the car park of the local DIY merchant at the end of my street (more or less) through the middle of town to the broad street that's the one that gets closed off for fairs, to be greeted by the town band playing Barbie Girl (they'd probably been there a while, entertaining people before the parade showed up), a stage for the drag acts, and assorted stalls. Including one for the cops (Dyfed-Powys Police) which was hiding behind the one for Welsh Water/Dŵr Cymru and the National Trust (who'd carried a lovely patchwork progress flag in the parade). I followed on behind, just in front of the huge articulated lorry which was stuck behind the road closure and not part of the parade, but was an excellent demonstration of why the town needs a bypass.
It was all a bit too many people, nothing of interest, for me, so I wandered away (albeit with a destination in mind). Outside my sister ex-law's former shop was a pop-up wine bar (possibly organised by the bar across the street) with a large trans flag hanging down the front. That wasn't enough to lure me in though.
Back at the top of the hill, at the back of the high street, the car park of the old market hall (now, after many years getting through planning and lockdown, converted into business units half of which lie empty) was hosting a Street Food Circus event, a bizarre love-child of hipsters and capitalist gamification. (You're supposed to vote on your favourite dish, from about a dozen. How are you supposed to do that sensibly?) On the other hand, it was much more interesting food than anything at the bottom, and I could wash it down with a really nice pint of IPA. I don't know whether co-inciding with Pride was co-incidence, or an intentional invite, or an exploit of the fact that there would be a lot more people gathered here than would normally be expected. They were certainly not marking it as being linked to Pride, and there were markedly fewer rainbows when I got there, although more arrived as time passed.
Eventually I wended my way home. The IPA, despite being called a session, was having an effect on a body which hasn't had a beer this year. On the way, I dropped into the Pride Craft Fair, which was 95% generic craft/tat stalls rainbow/glitter theming. The 5% included Ye Green Men from whom I drunkenly/under headmate influence bought a "Enby AF" fused glass badge, thinking thoughts about jewellery which will have to go elsewhere because this is already plenty long enough.
I didn't have anything to do with it, because none of the advertising explicitly linked "Pride" and "Diversity" to anything LGBTQ+, and someone I know had had trouble getting the organisers to do anything about their apparent trans-exclusionism (leading with: they'd only had six-stripe flags flying, no progress pride—a couple of progress ones did turn up, but it's still a mixture, including and eight-stripe or two and the Welsh pride ddraig goch on a six-stripe field).
This year, it might be my last here, so I thought I'd see what was happening. The promotion has been much the same. And … my instincts about it were largely correct. It's an event organised by middle-aged, middle-class white men with husbands and 2.4 dogs, whose "pride" is in having become pillars of the community while openly gay. It's a celebration of how far we've come since our youth, not a demonstration against the discrimination and increasing political hostility some of us are still facing. It's putting on a show, complete with drag acts, for the cishets, where the only political message is the implicit "Look at what you'd be missing out on without us". It's rainbow face paint for the kids, an excuse to bring in some food stalls and have a street party for the town. And of course a parade, and it is a parade, not a march.
But it is, I suppose, a beach-head, a line in the sand that says "This is all socially acceptable. You are not taking this away." And, critically, it doesn't pull the ladder up behind itself. Sure, it's not helping, but neither is it saying that this is enough.
It rained on the parade. Well, chucked a few drops at it, anyway. I'd post pictures and video somewhere, but I was using an old compact which has good discreet shoot-from-the-hip properties but honestly none of them came out that well, and I don't have a working video editor at the moment, and there so many children I really don't want to put anything up remotely public. And when I say lots of children … there was an entire block (of six, I think) of the parade which was the Guides and Brownies marching with a big "Guide with Pride" banner.
And it was that structured, blocked out by organisation, with an open-top bus at the front, and the town fire engine at the rear. And even big enough, and open enough, so have some kind of kink representation. Even if it was just three guys in street-friendly leathers with a couple of leather pride flags. It went from the car park of the local DIY merchant at the end of my street (more or less) through the middle of town to the broad street that's the one that gets closed off for fairs, to be greeted by the town band playing Barbie Girl (they'd probably been there a while, entertaining people before the parade showed up), a stage for the drag acts, and assorted stalls. Including one for the cops (Dyfed-Powys Police) which was hiding behind the one for Welsh Water/Dŵr Cymru and the National Trust (who'd carried a lovely patchwork progress flag in the parade). I followed on behind, just in front of the huge articulated lorry which was stuck behind the road closure and not part of the parade, but was an excellent demonstration of why the town needs a bypass.
It was all a bit too many people, nothing of interest, for me, so I wandered away (albeit with a destination in mind). Outside my sister ex-law's former shop was a pop-up wine bar (possibly organised by the bar across the street) with a large trans flag hanging down the front. That wasn't enough to lure me in though.
Back at the top of the hill, at the back of the high street, the car park of the old market hall (now, after many years getting through planning and lockdown, converted into business units half of which lie empty) was hosting a Street Food Circus event, a bizarre love-child of hipsters and capitalist gamification. (You're supposed to vote on your favourite dish, from about a dozen. How are you supposed to do that sensibly?) On the other hand, it was much more interesting food than anything at the bottom, and I could wash it down with a really nice pint of IPA. I don't know whether co-inciding with Pride was co-incidence, or an intentional invite, or an exploit of the fact that there would be a lot more people gathered here than would normally be expected. They were certainly not marking it as being linked to Pride, and there were markedly fewer rainbows when I got there, although more arrived as time passed.
Eventually I wended my way home. The IPA, despite being called a session, was having an effect on a body which hasn't had a beer this year. On the way, I dropped into the Pride Craft Fair, which was 95% generic craft/tat stalls rainbow/glitter theming. The 5% included Ye Green Men from whom I drunkenly/under headmate influence bought a "Enby AF" fused glass badge, thinking thoughts about jewellery which will have to go elsewhere because this is already plenty long enough.