Why Have A Gay Pride Parade?
by David Nava

"When do we get our parade?"

The question was asked more in fun than with envy, more in joking than with malice, but it struck a chord with me. I had casually mentioned to a couple of my straight friends that the Gay Pride Parade was coming up and I was looking forward to it.

"What about Straight Pride Day?" the female of the couple asked with a grin.

"Everyday is Straight Pride Day," I answered, also grinning. "This culture celebrates it with gay abandon." She laughed.

"When do we get our parade?" demanded her male counterpart.

"Turn the television on." I said. "There's your parade." We all laughed and went about our business but the brief exchange kept coming back to me through the week. The more I thought about it the more serious it became.

Why have a Gay Pride Parade? It's a question many straight people might be asking in the next few weeks. Gay people, I believe, inherently, intuitively know why we have a parade. We have a Gay Pride Parade because 25 years ago a bunch of drag queens at a bar called The Stonewall fought back for the first time when the police overstepped the bounds of their authority for the millionth time, thereby launching the Gay Liberation Movement. We have a Gay Pride Parade so that at least for one day in a year we can walk down the streets of where we live and show our numbers for all the world to see. We have a Gay Pride Parade to celebrate our defeat of The Closet, to have a day when we can proclaim, without reservation, who we are and who we love.

So, when do the straight people get their own parade?

When straight people are prevented from marrying the people they choose to marry, precluded from enjoying tax benefits available to married people, then they should have a parade. When straight people are barred from serving their country in the military, then they should have a parade. When straight people are routinely fired from their jobs because of who they love with or live with then they should have a parade. When straight people are blocked from holding sensitive jobs in the government merely because of their sexual orientation, then they should have a parade. When straight people are forbidden to raise their own children or to adopt others, if they so choose, then they should have a parade. When straight people are beaten, harassed and shot at for holding hands in public then I'll march in their parade.

A man who lives in my neighborhood was shot on our street 2 years ago by a carload of young thugs because he was bidding a companion farewell with an embrace. The companion was another man. The Human Rights Commissioner of this city publicly intimated that the men were "asking for it" through engaging in "provocative behavior" by embracing to say good-bye. That's why I'll be at The Gay Pride Parade. Unless we stand together, march together, care together, no one will do it for us. We Gay and Lesbian people are on our own and we must depend on each other.

So, when some well meaning, or not-so well meaning straight acquaintance of yours questions the need for a Gay Pride Day Parade, educate the poor soul. I'm picking up the phone to call my two friends now.