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By Paul Meekin
“…Socially-privileged white people get to draw this neat little circle. And everyone inside the circle is “normal”. Anyone outside the circle needs to be beaten, broken and reset so that they can be brought into the circle. Failing that, they should be institutionalized. Or worse – Pitied.” Dr. Gregory House
I love pride parades. They’re bright, colorful, life affirming, there’s naked people everywhere, balloons for ages, and you get to hear Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ at least 16 times if you’re along the parade route.
Another cool aspect of the parade is all the different…flavors of the LGBTQ community it celebrates. Gay steel workers, gay politicians, cops, firemen, business owners, Irish, veterans, and so on – often with handcrafted and decorated floats to accompany them.
And candy!
Sadly, one group won’t be allowed to have a float in Charlotte, North Carolina’s Pride Parade: Gay Trump Supporters.
“(Mike) Talbert…said he and a fellow gay Trump supporter sent in an application to Charlotte Pride so they could have a float in this year’s Charlotte Pride Parade…Talbert said Charlotte Pride sent him an email denying his application for a float.”
The official response?
“Charlotte Pride reserves the right to decline participation at our events to groups or organizations which do not reflect the mission, vision and values of our organization, as is acknowledged in our parade rules and regulations by all groups at the time of their parade application. In the past, we have made similar decisions to decline participation from other organizations espousing anti-LGBTQ religious or public policy stances.”
Lip service or not, lets keep in mind Donald Trump is the first Republican President to be pictured with an Pride Flag and mention LGBTQ peoples, and support for them, in his speeches.
The Transgender Bathroom executive order he signed wasn’t designed to limit kids access to bathrooms, but rather to let schools know they weren’t going to lose funding if they couldn’t implement such a policy; rescinding an order from the Obama administration that threatened to remove federal funds if schools refused to comply.
I’m not saying Trump is a ‘friend’ to the LGBTQ community, instead I’m saying it’s not beyond the realm of reason to assume gay folks might vote for Donald Trump if they believe in the platform. It was one of the first times voting for a republican as a gay man wasn’t also an obvious vote against your ‘people’.
Of course, gay Trump supporters are a minority; a minority of a minority in this case, and a minority LGBTQ folks in North Carolina want nothing to do with, apparently.
But they may be forced to. Mr. Talbert has organized a GoFundMe (because of course he did) to retain a legal team in order to sue Charlotte Pride into letting him participate.
Earlier this year there was a controversy where the Boston Veteran’s parade didn’t want ‘OutVets’ to March, citing it was a parade to celebrate military service not a person’s personal life. Public sentiment and outcry eventually won the day and OutVets were allowed to march.
Alas, I somehow doubt there are a lot of social justice warriors clamoring to support this gay man’s right to participate in a parade that’s supposed to celebrate his personhood, just because of who he is.
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