Query
I have been reading about the Queer Youth Network and their Pride is a Protest campaign at Manchester Pride on Saturday. Event organisers and stewards tried to prevent people from raising banners with anti-corporate slogans like "too poor for pride". This is an atrocious state of affairs, clearly. I couldn't help wonder how those organisers justify their actions personally, how it feels to tell queer kids NOT to protest. That consumer capitalism is an enemy looming as large as hetero-patriarchy is so vivid in this.
I suppose that the floats at the event represent the many businesses and organizations that benefit in a whole variety of ways from gaining publicity for their various causes, services and trades. These people cannot be condemned for their participation, but how do they feel about the cost? Is it true that almost none of the money raised from the £20 wrist bands goes to LGBT causes? One of the protest banners said, "stonewall was a riot, not a brand", and I feel for that sentiment, though I also have doubts. I went to the first Leeds Pride a couple of years ago and I was disappointed that it lacked community, history, creativity or activism. It was mostly floats by sex shops and bars. I walked with some queers dressed as pirates, who were doing their utmost to present an alternative standpoint, but their mutiny felt to me very much washed into the tide of folks who were rapidly approaching the bars...
The most important thing surely is that voices of dissent are heard and that critiques of the normative reach and affect people. I often wonder how much impact queer campaigns and events have on the UK mainstream? Do they change perceptions, shift patterns of consumption, or redress issues? I hope that the protest at the weekend got someone inspired to do something and to tell someone...
I suppose that the floats at the event represent the many businesses and organizations that benefit in a whole variety of ways from gaining publicity for their various causes, services and trades. These people cannot be condemned for their participation, but how do they feel about the cost? Is it true that almost none of the money raised from the £20 wrist bands goes to LGBT causes? One of the protest banners said, "stonewall was a riot, not a brand", and I feel for that sentiment, though I also have doubts. I went to the first Leeds Pride a couple of years ago and I was disappointed that it lacked community, history, creativity or activism. It was mostly floats by sex shops and bars. I walked with some queers dressed as pirates, who were doing their utmost to present an alternative standpoint, but their mutiny felt to me very much washed into the tide of folks who were rapidly approaching the bars...
The most important thing surely is that voices of dissent are heard and that critiques of the normative reach and affect people. I often wonder how much impact queer campaigns and events have on the UK mainstream? Do they change perceptions, shift patterns of consumption, or redress issues? I hope that the protest at the weekend got someone inspired to do something and to tell someone...