Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > June > 01
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Not just one way to salute gay pride
Who owns gay pride? Or, more to the point, who owns the Austin tributes to the Stonewall Riots of June 1969, which ignited the modern gay movement?
“Nobody” seems as safe a dodge as “everybody.” Yet anyone familiar with the dynastic rivalries among advocates of African American civil rights or the micro-divisions within the women’s movement knows that such symbolic events come packed with potential strife.
This week, two Austin groups — Austin Gay and Lesbian Pride Foundation and Queer Bomb — will salute the historic riots in distinct ways.
The last part didn’t sit well with everyone.
“We didn’t want pride to become just another circuit party,” says Chad Peevy, 29, president of the foundation, which is attempting to define the annual festival and parade as family-friendly and tourist-genial. “I didn’t always feel included in the past. I don’t think others did either.”
You see, large, elaborate circuit parties attract gay males (almost exclusively) for music, dance and various forms of intemperance. Among the marathon festivities on the international circuit are Palm Springs’ White Party, Montreal’s Black and Blue Party and Miami’s Winter Party. In Austin, Splash parties — the next one scheduled for Labor Day weekend — radiate from the vicinity of Hippie Hollow.
Fine for that sort of thing, Peevy says, but not a way to unite a larger community. “I have felt isolated in my gay experience,” he says. “In my search for a sense of belonging, I’ve been given an opportunity to create a place, one I hope others could relate to as well. You can go to the same circuit party in Los Angeles, New York or Miami. Instead, we wanted to showcase the best among us and the best within us.”
With that in mind, the foundation chose seven grand marshals — Libby Sykora, Oliver Everette, Patrice Pike, Lisa Scheps, Laura Morrison, Megan Hodge and Gregory J. Vincent — representing law, media, music, business, charity, government, education and other fields. Hodge, a rising star, gained fame as a high school student and co-founder of Texas Gay Straight Alliance Network; she now works closely with Out Youth.
Peevy, who runs a marketing company, and his foundation took over duties that had previously been shouldered by the Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, a business group, and Equality Texas, an advocacy group, at various locations.
Not everyone is happy with the Pride regime or its aims. A group called Queer Bomb, which quickly attracted more than 700 friends on Facebook, plans an alternative event on Friday. It will start at 8:30 p.m. at 501 Studios in East Austin, follow a procession downtown, then return to the Studios for a blowout bash.
Queer Bomb spokesman Paul Soileau, who doubles in drag as Rebecca Havemeyer, says that some in the community have felt discouraged by the foundation’s structure. They also suspect that certain elements of gay culture have been shunted aside as Austin Pride was mainstreamed.
Members of Soileau’s group say they felt that Austin Pride was too closely associated with business interests and that it strives too hard to fit in with the straight world. (The presence of children, accompanied by gay or straight parents, seems to heat any such debate.)
The foundation does charge fees ($75-$125) for parade floats, defrays organizing costs through VIP passes priced as high as $179, and encourages behavior that wouldn’t offend sponsors or mainstream audiences.
That’s a sticking point for Queer Bomb, whose members mistrust the Austin Pride leadership based on past experiences.
“We are an array of unique individuals who don’t feel their presence accepted,” Soileau says. “We are being forced to correct behavior in a controlled way. (Austin Pride) is making people feel we are unsafe because of the way we look and act.”
Both groups are seeking greater inclusion, which has led, almost inevitably, to some feeling left out. It’s a disagreement as old as the gay movement. While feelings on both sides have been bruised, neither is discouraging attendance at the other’s events.
“We are asking people to take part in everything,” Soileau says. “Do as many things as you can, since this is the one weekend we really have.”
UPDATE: The starting point for the Queer Bomb procession, 501 Studios, was not announced until after the article in the June 1 American-Statesman was printed.
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