It’s fantastic that there is somewhere for eccentric/flamboyant gays to safely gather and express themselves in the open, but on the other hand, MAYBE it’s not the best to have it as the nationally broadcast platform for what it means to be homosexual in America. At the very least, be able to tone it back on how extreme it has gotten as of late.

While it’s fun to dress up in highly revealing and sexual outfits to show off your pride, it’s probably doing more harm than good for your cause. Recently in protest to the very controversial anti-gay laws in Russia, some gay activists decided to show their anger by mailing hundreds of dildos to Vladimir Putin’s home address. And while the idea of it is indeed hilarious, it probably is not the smartest idea to combat someone with horrible opinions about your group by drastically proving those opinions correct.

For many people in our country, the gay pride parade is their only window into what the gay community looks like. It is very unfortunate, but there are still many people in our country that think homosexuals are depraved, sexual deviants and are incapable of raising healthy children. There are select groups that are not only thinking this, but actively promoting and making policies against letting gay couples have civil rights.

Not only that, but it probably does scare some people who are still in the closet and afraid of coming out, because they worry that their community will only know of the extreme stereotypes like those portrayed and enforced during the parade.

With it being the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s march onto Washington D.C., it might help to raise some comparisons between the two still oppressed communities. While racial minorities fight for their rights by saying they are just people like us who deserve the same respect and opportunities, much of the gay community seem to try to fight for their rights as equal human beings by trying to be as loud, obscene, and in your face about it as possible.

We are lucky enough that our society has advanced to the point where there are places for eccentric people to safely express themselves now. Burning Man (which is this weekend) is a great place for letting yourself loose and dressing up (or down) in the most ridiculous outfits you can come up with. It’s somewhere for people to be crazy and obscene, without any kind of political overlap to it.
I highly doubt that the civil rights movement would have gotten nearly as far as it did if it adopted the same “We aren’t like you, get used to it” mentality that many gay activists have adopted. If a large population thinks negatively about some extreme stereotypes within your culture, and you yourself admit that it’s pretty extreme, you probably shouldn’t try to make it your loudest focus in your nationally recognized cultural event. We are still fighting for serious representation and civil rights, and that kind of behavior isn’t going to help.