On Sunday, May 25th, somewhere between 3.5 and 5 million folks (depending on who you source) filled the streets in São Paulo to celebrate gay pride and demand an end to homophobia and sexism. This 12th annual São Paulo parade was by far the biggest event of its kind any time any where. By contrast, our beloved San Francisco Pride Day draws somewhere around 1 million revelers.
My enthusiasm for going to São Paulo to participate in the event was dampened by nearly everyone I approached with the idea. Mostly folks feel afraid of violence. And also significantly, in our current circle of friends the gay men are not of the more prideful and outspoken "let's go celebrate in the streets" variety. They're more of the "don't ask - don't tell" type. Sigh.
I'm struggling a bit with the much more closeted environment we live in. Gotta say my lesbian breast cancer awareness Tshirt featuring a big cartoon of a topless mixed-race lesbian couple exchanging breast exams does draw some curious looks at the super market. And every time Luiz and I kiss at parties our gay male friends cringe, look around and warn us to watch out so the children don't see us. Double sigh. The parents of those kids, by the way, are on record as being in full support of us kissing at will.
Got some work to do down here. I'm starting with challenging our gay male freinds when the situation presents itself.
Posts
1 comment:
Keep the love going
Post a Comment