Outfest: Pride And Prejudice

Before I discuss Outfest itself, here are a couple of pictures I took on Wednesday when the Rainbow Flag was raised at City Hall in honor of LGBT History Month. I hadn't realized that the flagpoles in question were sitting at ground level and didn't go extremely far up. Still, it's a nice honor. I did read that the flag was only raised temporarily, and then taken down until the 15th because they had to put back up the Puerto Rican flag that was raised in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (mid-September to mid-October). That seems to be a slight to both, in a way. Perhaps they'll work things out differently next year.

The Rainbow Flag after being raised

Mayor Michael Nutter speaking

As for Sunday, when I got downtown and walked down 13th Street towards the festival, the first thing I saw was the protesters. There's a small group of religious nuts that shows up every year at the Pride festival in June, as well as at Outfest. The reactions to these protesters ranges from trying to reason with them (complete waste of time) to heckling to making jokes to angry yelling. There's always a police presence to keep the peace, which is a good thing because if there weren't, I know there'd be trouble.

This year, in addition to the small group standing near the barricade with the loudspeaker blaring their message of hate, there were a few people walking around the festival with t-shirts saying "God hates you" and "God hates sinners" -- sort of like what the Westboro Baptist creeps wear, but none of them actually said "God hates fags," as the Phelps nuts wear. Also, their sayings were either written in pen or painted. They were quite crudely written. I guess those people were too poor to afford anything better.

Meanwhile, I almost literally walked into a film crew walking backwards. I had no idea who they were filming until I looked at one of their credentials.
Turns out it was Kendra Wilkinson -- reality TV personality, Playboy centerfold, wife of ex-Eagle Hank Baskett -- filming for her TV show. She had a friend and a bodyguard with her. I was surprised that she's very tiny in person. I think of women from Playboy as tall and busty, and she is petite. Still kind of busty, although her outfit wasn't designed to show off her figure.

I also ran into Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania Dan Onorato, who was making the rounds. I shook his hand and said, "You'd better win." What I really wanted to say was "you're not gonna win." Between the historical trends (PA elects a Democratic governor for two 4-year terms, then a Republican for two terms, and back and forth -- it's been going on for decades, and it's the GOP's turn on the cycle) and this year's apparent trends (away from incumbents, away from Democrats thanks to two squandered years in charge) and Onorato's lackluster campaign -- his first big TV ad this fall he spent time talking about how people don't know how to say his name -- he's in serious trouble.

And at one point, I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned. A guy said "hi" as if he knew me. My reaction, perhaps because of the beer I had (I think I was working on my second of three at that point) was to reply, "Oh, hi, how are you?" as if I knew him. Then we went our separate ways. I have no idea who he was. None whatsoever. My friend Kurt, with whom I was hanging for a while, told me to go after him. Yeah, right. Was I supposed to go up to him and say, after that initial greeting, "Okay, who are you exactly?" How awkward would that be? I'm shy and awkward enough as it is.

Anyhoo, more pics. This isn't the best shot, especially with my finger in the corner, but someone had dyed their dogs -- look at the ones in the background...isn't this a form of animal cruelty?

 

On stage there were performers and ceremonies throughout the day. The first pic below is the master of ceremonies. I'm not sure who the man in the second pic is, but he wasn't getting much attention while he was on. The crowd around the stage was sparse at that time. It filled up later when a David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust tribute act hit the stage, followed by the drag impersonators.

Emcee Henri David

?????

"Ziggy Stardust" -- the rest of the Spiders from Mars were out of costume, but assured everyone that their show at some club that night would feature a fully-costumed band.

When you've seen the real thing, as I have, carbon copies of Cher just don't do it

There were also a few people like the guy below walking around promoting the Terror Behind the Walls haunted house at Eastern State Penitentiary -- this Thursday is actually Gay Night at TBTW. I have a buy one-get one free coupon if anyone wants to go. Plus, among other things, a mechanical bull.

I never found the area where people were supposed to be filming videos for the It Gets Better project. Maybe they were there somewhere and I missed them. Seeing as how I still have the audio glitch when posting videos to YouTube (which continues to blow, by the way), I can't post one of my own.

After I left Kurt and his friends, before I went home I walked around a little more and then passed by the protesters again. I really wanted to say something, but I didn't. These people anger me. I was a little down when I went home -- in part because of these hatemongering dinosaurs, in part because I saw so many people together, in couples or in groups, and I felt out of place, old, alone, all the usual stuff.

That evening, while online, I saw this article. A 19-year-old man killed himself, a week after attending a Norman, Oklahoma City Council meeting where a proclamation recognizing October as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month was being debated:

One man said he moved to Norman because he thought it was the kind of place that would never accept the GLBT community with open arms. A woman, who described herself as "bi-racial," said she was tired of the GLBT plight being compared to Civil Rights.

Some of those who opposed the proclamation claimed that members of the GLBT community would use it to infiltrate the public school system, essentially allowing the "gay lifestyle" to become a part of the curriculum.

Others claimed that council recognizing October as GLBT History Month was a waste of their time. Some members of the audience even suggested that any council members voting in favor of the proclamation may have trouble getting reelected.

Numerous residents also claimed the Bible was their guiding light, citing the ancient text as their primary reason for opposing the proclamation and the GLBT community in general.

And for those in attendance, it was hard to ignore the intolerant grumblings, the exasperated sighs and cold, hard stares that followed comments from supporters of the GLBT proclamation.

Even most council members admitted that a majority of the e-mails and phone calls they fielded regarding the proclamation were against it.

The young man's family feels that, after going through difficulties when he came out in high school, the debate that day pushed him over the edge. But here's the thing: the proclamation was passed by a 7-1 vote. In Norman, Oklahoma, of all places, they did the right thing, and this kid still killed himself.

It just makes me wonder: these despicable protesters, these truly evil people -- they know that words hurt, and are willing to say and do anything to stop the progress towards equality. They're dinosaurs that are becoming extinct -- younger people more and more are overwhelmingly in favor of full equality for all, and eventually they'll be running things -- but right now these hate-filled scumbags are still around and still causing a lot of damage. And their words are killing children. We need to do more to stop them and we need to do it NOW. But how? They can't be reasoned with. They ignore the laughter and the heckling and I think they enjoy making people angry. All the It Gets Better videos and flag-raisings and Outfests and speeches from politicians and TV shows and interviews with grieving relatives and friends...nothing works against them. So what do we do? If we can't find a way to change their minds, and I really don't think we can, then what?