Heather Gold on Pride 2005

With San Francisco Pride 2005 coming up this weekend, geek comedian Heather Gold has written an essay about her sense of pride and Pride:

Pride is traditionally the day queer folks take a break from designing and catering other people's parties to have a party of our own. I'm still debating whether I'll go to the Gay Pride Pride Parade this year. I usually go, but I'm a little hesitant this year. I think it's because I'm reaching gay middle age, which can begin as early as 25…

Stand proud Gay Parcheesi Players with Hay Fever! You are not alone. Soon, you too will have a float in the parade. And a special flag. This is how we got the new acronym GLBTIQQ. We used to be the gay community. Now, we are the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual, intersex, queer and questioning community. If we really want to be genuinely inclusive, we should add FSP for friendly straight people. And then add some vowels, because they're feeling oppressed and excluded from the acronym. Then add T for Tired, because you're exhausted by the time you get to the end of it. GBLTIQQUOEFSPAT. This is how the Parade got so long.

No one will be left out! Except the numbers. Maybe the genderqueer folks can be the numbers. Or maybe we can just use ?. The Parade is now as long as ?. They should have a halftime break. They can have straight men come out and play football for us.

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