Pardoning cowardice

Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Mark Taylor and Cathy Cox are skipping this weekend’s Atlanta Pride festival, drawing predictable condemnation from local gay leaders.

Chuck Bowen, executive director of the state’s largest gay rights organization, Georgia Equality, said he is  “disappointed” that neither Democrat will attend this year’s Pride festival, one of the largest events of its kind in the nation.

“There will be 250,000 people in [Piedmont Park] this weekend, and it’s a tremendous opportunity for them to meet Georgians from across the state and hear what we have to say,” he said.

“Instead, they’re turning their backs on a large constituency.”

Regrettable, perhaps, but understandable. Quoting myself, in a column I wrote for The Los Angeles Times a few years back, “The gay movement hasn’t matured; it’s grown stale. Pride marches have turned into shopworn cavalcades of been-there, done-that decadence.”

Don’t you know the GOP would exploit that to the hilt? It’s easy to imagine a campaign commercial featuring Cox or Taylor speaking in front of a group of bears in leather jockstraps. Democrats have a hard enough time appealing to an increasingly conservative electorate without those sort of distractions.

And should people who wear leather jockstraps in public expect to be taken seriously? Granted, they’re not representative of the majority of Pride celebrants, but the minority is well represented by — shall we say — the outrageously flamboyant. I’m not for discrimination of any kind — and that includes the more freakish elements of the GLBT pie — but if you want “the establishment” to recognize, sometimes you have to play the game.

Besides, is this weekend even about politics? For some, yes, but most are just out for a good time.

Reality may be inconvenient, but we avoid it at our peril. The gay community’s justifiable struggle for relevance also requires a look inward. We may compare our crusade to the civil rights movement of the 1950 and 60s, but can we honestly say we comport ourselves with the dignity of those who marched on Selma?

My vertigo diary

DAY THREE

Nausea: gone

Dizziness: tolerable

Blurred vision: remains

Meds: not strong enough

Kim Novak: still nowhere to be found (which would greatly disappoint my father, never one to comment much on the looks of other women … save for Miss Novak. Sorry, dad).

You went there

I’ve been waiting for the self-loathing homo card to be dealt:

sometimes I think you have a little self hatred for gayness. This weekend is about pride and being proud of who we are… if leather jock straps get the job done, then they get the job done!

Thanks for taking the bait, Duane, for whom I hold no malice, save that you completely misunderstood my point (and "gayness," for that matter). In fact, you didn’t even bother to argue it. And I appreciate your concern, but I’m quite pleased with myself, perhaps too much so.

Within the previous post I stated I have no trouble with the extremes of our community, but that you can’t expect people to take you seriously when you don’t take yourself seriously. If you wanna shake your ass in public, feel free — I’ve been there — but be prepared to accept the consequences of irrelevance.

In the end, I want the gay movement to mature, not flounder in platitudes and self-righteousness. Isn’t that a worthy goal?

Too bad you had to resort to name calling. Pretty intolerant, if you ask me.

**For an even better defense of yours truly, read Andisheh’s comment beneath the previous post.

Pardoning cowardice

Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Mark Taylor and Cathy Cox are skipping this weekend’s Atlanta Pride festival, drawing predictable condemnation from local gay leaders.

Chuck Bowen, executive director of the state’s largest gay rights organization, Georgia Equality, said he is  "disappointed" that neither Democrat will attend this year’s Pride festival, one of the largest events of its kind in the nation.

"There will be 250,000 people in [Piedmont Park] this weekend, and it’s a tremendous opportunity for them to meet Georgians from across the state and hear what we have to say," he said.

"Instead, they’re turning their backs on a large constituency."

Regrettable, perhaps, but understandable. Quoting myself, in a column I wrote for The Los Angeles Times a few years back, "The gay movement hasn’t matured; it’s grown stale. Pride marches have turned into shopworn cavalcades of been-there, done-that decadence."

Don’t you know the GOP would exploit that to the hilt? It’s easy to imagine a campaign commercial featuring Cox or Taylor speaking in front of a group of bears in leather jockstraps. Democrats have a hard enough time appealing to an increasingly conservative electorate without those sort of distractions.

And should people who wear leather jockstraps in public expect to be taken seriously? Granted, they’re not representative of the majority of Pride celebrants, but the minority is well represented by — shall we say — the outrageously flamboyant. I’m not for discrimination of any kind — and that includes the more freakish elements of the GLBT pie — but if you want "the establishment" to recognize, sometimes you have to play the game.

Besides, is this weekend even about politics? For some, yes, but most are just out for a good time.

Reality may be inconvenient, but we avoid it at our peril. The gay community’s justifiable struggle for relevance also requires a look inward. We may compare our crusade to the civil rights movement of the 1950 and 60s, but can we honestly say we comport ourselves with the dignity of those who marched on Selma?

My vertigo diary

DAY THREE

Nausea: gone

Dizziness: tolerable

Blurred vision: remains

Meds: not strong enough

Kim Novak: still nowhere to be found (which would greatly disappoint my father, never one to comment much on the looks of other women … save for Miss Novak. Sorry, dad).

Just dessert

What can I say, Terence Moore is right. Such affirmation is rarely uttered by regular readers of the AJC sports section, but I can’t disagree with his thesis –

If there ever was a city that didn’t deserve a team doing the unprecedented and the unthinkable such as the Braves along the way to 14 consecutive division titles, that city is right here in the heart of Dixie. Or should I say that city is right here in the heart of apathy? …

Only six of the Braves’ past 19 home games in the division series were sellouts. Five involved the Cardinals and the Cubs, whose fan bases were louder and often larger than those of the Braves. That other sellout came two years ago, when the national media kept mentioning the contrast between the wired crowds in Houston and the bored ones at Turner Field. In essence, Braves fans were punked into at least showing up for a fifth and decisive Game 5.

As for Braves home games in the National League Championship Series, they’ve sold out just three of their previous 12, and their last one against the Diamondbacks in 2001 drew 14,000 folks shy of capacity.

The place was packed this past weekend for the Braves’ regular-season games against the Red Sox, and that was good for the Red Sox. While the Red Sox players contributed to the Braves’ slide in the standings, the Red Sox fans made so much racket compared with their counterparts that you’d have thought there was a Green Monster in left field.

I already can hear those tired and familiar excuses. Here’s the most nauseating: You can’t find an Atlanta native anymore, and you have so many people who are from someplace else. Well, I know a lot of Atlanta natives, and given today’s highly mobile society, most cities away from the East and the upper Midwest are transient these days. Phoenix. Miami. Dallas. San Francisco. Seattle. Los Angeles. Denver. (Fill in the blank.)

The bottom line is that Atlanta fans need a wake-up call regarding pro sports, and maybe they’ll get one now that the Braves’ dominance is going to sleep.

Of course, there are plenty of Atlanta sports fans who aren’t spoiled, but unfortunately we’re in the minority. The majority is busy checking up on some high school wide receiver’s latest time in the 40.