Pittsburgh Pride is but a few months away, and as usual the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh is set to again out do itself. Since Delta has overseen the yearly celebration, they have made it a must-attend series of events that has done an enormous amount for Pittsburgh’s LGBT community, as well as for the City of Pittsburgh! Not everyone out there agrees it has all been positive, but for the record, I think what Delta has achieved has been amazing and we all owe the folks at Delta much. Visibility is a crucial part of the growing movement towards full equality, and few things create the amount of visibility that Pittsburgh Pride generates.
Given that, I was really surprised to see this year’s Pittsburgh Pride theme, I Wanna Marry You. Or, at least I think that is the theme since it is so prominently displayed on the official T-Shirt. (as an aside, I think the graphic is awesome!)
I can’t help but wonder what were they thinking?
1) While same-sex marriage is the big trendy issue de jour as we await the US Supreme Court decisions later this year, it is in no way the whole of the LGBT Rights struggle. In fact for many, the focus on Marriage is a step back into assimilationism, buying into a patriarchal, outdated, old fashioned cultural structure that doesn’t really work.
2) Even for those who support Marriage, it isn’t really about the rings and the “I Do”! Well for some it may be. Or it’s about the ability to throw the grandest party EVER! And for some of us, it is about the mundane civil contract that protects our families and our loved ones. Grand party; boring civil contract; I guess different strokes for different folks.
3) Marriage is not an issue that impacts the whole of the LGBTQ community. Yes, for Delta, that is only the LGBT community, but either way, the right to same-sex marriage impacts gays and lesbians and leaves the rest of our community out in the cold on their own. Consider how Canada had same-sex marriage since 2005 but no protections for trans persons until 2013.
Hey, don’t get me wrong, I am all for Marriage Equality. Everyone should have access to Civil Marriage and I’ve written much about Marriage on this blog. And in the bigger scheme of things, how important is the theme (if this is the theme) anyway? It may just be a sharp T-Shirt with a trendy cool graphic that amplifies the awareness that all relationships matter and deserve protection. Pittsburgh Pride is all about (and does a great job of) visibility: T-Shirts included! And I am sure I’ll get a snippy text or email from someone at Delta. I always do when I say anything they find critical.
But in the spirit of Stonewall which we remember and celebrate every June-
It was not the A-list gays, or the trendy folks who got the ball started demanding EQUAL RIGHTS! It was the drag queens and the types of folks that were the outcasts of an outcast minority. Marriage Equality is but one small part of the large and inclusive demand we have called Full Equal Rights for Everyone!
The Stonewall Inn, at the time, was owned by the Mafia.[5][6] It catered to an assortment of patrons, but it was known to be popular with the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens, representatives of a newly self-aware transgender community, effeminate young men, male prostitutes, and homeless youth.
Pride parade pic By Guillaume Paumier