The thing about Pride is that LGBT bodies are good and LGBT sex is good and LGBT kink is good and celebrating who we are is good, and seeing as how we’re talking about a public parade and not a bathhouse so no one is gonna be fucking in public or whatever reactionaries are lying about now, young people seeing LGBT people being ourselves joyfully is also good even if there’s PG level PDA and booty shorts
I don’t know what world you live in where wearing a collar is so scandalous but they’re literally a fashion item and have been for a long time, what do you think studded chokers are based on, or the leather strap chokers with a heart in place of an O ring at the front - where do you think that comes from? Should the pastel goth teenagers stop wearing those heart chokers to the mall since they’re also collars or is this something that applies to gay people only?
Wearing a leather strap is not doing anyone any harm, it’s an expression of aesthetic, community, and desire, and an incredibly tame one at that since it’s only sexual if you know the context. Meanwhile straight men walk around wearing t shirts with explicit and misogynistic sex jokes on them every day of the year and no one bats an eye. This post is specifically arguing against this kind of sentiment so feel free to make your own post if you feel your personal opinion should dictate how other people dress and express themselves at an event where LGBT people are meant to be able to dress how we want and express ourselves freely
Oh my god this discourse is back again
I don’t mean to derail but as a queer Black person there’s an applicable anecdote here
In Canada in one of our big metropolitan cities there’s a parade celebrating Caribbean culture with Caribbean carnival costumes, music, food, dancing etc. Attendees and participants are predominantly Black and even the most scandalous costumes are similar to bikinis. White people flipped their shit that this slutty parade was ruining their city so it was moved from downtown to the edge of the city and surveilled by helicopters.
I could say a lot about Blackness in this context but even after this white people flipped their shit about how it was inappropriate for children and one of my friends/organizers said “[parade name] is not a zoo built for you and your white children to come and ogle and experience Black people free from discomfort” and I think about that a lot - nothing at Pride is “indecent” and even our own standards of what is “decent” and what is “indecent” is inextricably linked with homophobia and anti-blackness which is why people shit their pants when queer folk are in leather, and why a Black body in costume is inherently sexual when a white body in the beach isn’t. it’s literally a fabric in a shape on a body calm down
