Apparently, it was Gay Pride this weekend, in the year that marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which lit a fire under the nascient gay liberation movement and changed gay men and women's history forever. Not that you'd have known it, given that Pride's motto was "Come Out and Play". So, just another chance for muscle marys and drag queens to wobble about to Girls Aloud then.
I stopped going to Pride once it was obvious the political message was being over-ridden by the party element. Oh, don't get me wrong, the party element was always an important part of it for me, but Pride had become just another of those dates on the festival calendar, a sort of pre or post-Glasto stop off for another afternoon's drinking in a field. There seemed no point in going to an event that had no message other than "come and get pissed and dance to third rate pop stars at the dog-end of their career".
Pride has changed a bit since then. It has a higher profile, marching through the heart of London and ending up in Trafalgar Square, where the main stage is, with various other stages dotted around the West End. But so far, it has used this high profile only to further promote the idea that all gay people are about is fun fun FUN (of a certain, prescribed kind, and only for a handful of a certain type of people - no fats, fems or over-forties puh-LEASE Miss Thing!)
Being associated with brainless hedonism damages the gay community (if such a thing exists, and I doubt that it does, but it will suffice as an umbrella term for now). It means we're not taken seriously. In fact, it perpetuates stereotypes and reinforces oppression. Anyone who speaks out for gay rights, for equality or just for Pride to be something more than a big old piss-up gets accused of being a drama queen, or a wet blanket. There's a perception that all the battles have been won, so what's the use in whining on, let's just swallow a load of class As, bare those disco-titties and DANCE!
But the fact is that, despite greater legal equality in this country than we've ever had before, homophobia still exists. While lucky Londoners get to shake their lallies at a whole range of swank new bars and clubs, there are still areas of Britain where to be gay is to invite ostracism and isolation, persecution and victimization. "Gay" is still a term of abuse in the playground (and don't give me that shit about words redefining themselves - yes, sure they do, but as long as you still have people who identify as gay, the word being used as an insult will still have an impact outside the merely semantic). There is a rise in homophobic hate crime across the board. People still die at the hands of homophobic murderers.
But even if the situation in the UK is improving, globally the picture for gay people remains grim. You only have to look at Iran to see that. Gay people there get hanged simply for being gay. Some gay men are more or less forced to mutilate themselves through gender realignment surgery just to live their lives unhampered by the theocracy's machines of oppression. The battle hasn't even begun yet in Iran.
The spirit of those brave queens who decided on June 28, 1969 that they weren't going to take any more still lives on. But you wouldn't know it, if you were relying on Pride to show it.