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FOR EVERYONE WHO THINKS GAY PRIDE IS NOT NECESSARY, READ THE FOLLOWING

Gay pride is not truly a way where people just go, "HEY LOOK AT ME I'M GAY! YAY!" No, it's a way to show that the homosexual community is fighting for equality and therefore must make themselves noticted (thus why there are gay parades).

Until homosexuals get the legal equality they deserve (I say "legal" because they probably won't be treated equaly in certain situations that are legal, just like other minorities) then gay pride will continue so the homosexual community can be recognized and not ignored. It helps people realize that "Hey, they're still doing that parade thing, aren't they? I guess they still need to be recognized and have their equal rights."

Yet once they are legally said to be equal and have the same respects of the law as everyone else does, then I can almost guarantee that after their is a huge celebration to celebrate the day when homosexuals got their equality, gay pride and parades will deminish greatly, and that only once every year will you see a big parade to celebrate that day the homosexual community got their equality.

And I look forward to the day where my GSA (Gay/Straight Alliance), and all other GSAs around the world, are not needed, because that will be the day when homosexuals are not so badly descriminated against, and though I know that may not come in several years, to quote Martin Luther King Jr., "I have a dream" and that's my dream.

Gay Pride is not about flaunting your sexuality. Gay pride has 2 distinct messages:

• A societal one, which says "You don't have to feel ashamed for being gay", and
  
  
• A political one, which says "We aren't going to shut up until we are given the same legal rights as everyone else".
  

Basically Gay Pride provides a symbol of tolerance and unity for all GLBT community members.

It shows a group that represents tolerance and acceptance of any sexual orientation and gender identity that is treated as an aberration for no rational reason.

Without it, a saddenly large amount of homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals would be unable to be true to themselves. Coming out of the closet is a frightening experience that many of us can not truly understand until it actually happens.

You run the risk of losing everything that you value. Your family, your friends, your employment, your children (if you had prior relationships before your discovery or during your self denial, or for the bisexuals if your spouse or lover is bigoted), your community and possibly even your life.

Even in situations where someone just runs a risk of being hated by some of their family and friends, it is still an awful thing to contemplate. There are also the ones that actually believe that they are an aberration, something wrong with the world.

But Gay Pride says, "Don't be ashamed. We support you! You are not damaged, broken, or wrong. You aren't a mistake, or diseased. You are perfectly fine. Its natural and its healthy for you to be YOU."

And for those filled with fear? Gay Pride says, "Don't be afraid. You are never alone. You might get abandoned by some, and that will hurt. But you will ALWAYS have us. We will never abandon you because of who you are attracted to, or what gender you identify as. We are here for you."

This support isn't enough to make it entirely unfrightening, but it does make it easier with that support. It can also lessen the blow of losing people you care about to bigotry. Not by much, but its enough.

And with more people willing to come out, more people will be willing to support the cause for rights, openly and fully, without the fear that it will out them before they are ready.

And that extra support could be the key number we need to get those rights for the entire GLBT community.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

These statutes also deprive the Lovings of liberty without due process of law in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541 (1942). See also Maynard v. Hill, 125 U.S. 190 (188 cool . To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

ho·mo·pho·bi·a (hō'mə-fō'bē-ə)
n.

1. Fear of or contempt for lesbians and gay men.
   
2. Behavior based on such a feeling.

I get sick of listening to straight people complain about, "Well, hey, we don't have a heterosexual-pride day, why do you need a gay-pride day?" I remember when I was a kid I'd always ask my mom: "Why don't we have a Kid's Day? We have a Mother's Day and a Father's Day, but why don't we have a Kid's Day?" My mom would always say, "Every day is Kid's Day." To all those heterosexuals that b***h about gay pride, I say the same thing: Every day is heterosexual-pride day! Can't you people enjoy your banquet and not piss on those of us enjoying our crumbs over here in the corner? ~Rob Nash

This so-called defence is based on the idea that a homosexual propostion can cause a reaction akin to temporary insanity in a person with latent homosexual tendencies or in someone who has been abused. Usually a homosexual advance is used as evidence of provocation in order to reduce the attackers sentance, for example, from murder to manslaughter. The Gay Times reports that the defense of homosexual panic has been used in the United States at least 15 times in the last 10 years to reduce charges from murder to manslaughter.
In a recent case in British Columbia, the Crown accepted a plea bargain of manslaughter in a murder case, on the grounds that the defendant had been provoked by an agressive homosexual assault. The court accepted the argument that a heterosexual man should react to an alledged advance with extreme violence. In another case, the Manitoba Court of Appeal said there is no doubt that a homosexual advance may be provocation.

I dont think gay pride is necassary, or black pride, or white pride, or latino pride. Gays are no different from anyone else. Everyone is discriminated against, not just gays imparticular

Despite the fact that, yes gays aren't the only ones discriminated against, there was a time of Women Pride and Black Pride when they were the focus of discrimination. Right now, it's in realization that gays just don't have the same rights as everyone else. Gay Pride is a movement, not neccessarily a feeling that is flaunted by many.

Please read the entire first post.

I think its so poetic that the american government is ruled by the majority and yet caters to the minority.