„Does (group of people) belong at pride?“ does not have a good answer - because it’s the wrong question.
Sure, we could say „Yes. It’s always yes“ and that would be fine for a simplified answer. We can talk about how you can’t exclude straight people from Pride without also running the risk of accidentally excluding trans people or bi people or even femme/masc gay couples. We can talk about how you can’t always see gender or sexuality at first glance. We can talk about how questioning people or closeted people can only safely attend Pride if there’s plausible deniability. We can talk about the history of Pride and that it has always included more than gays and lesbians. We can talk about how people have been, and are to this day, not only being discriminated against for being gay but for any deviation of what’s seen as „normal“. We can talk about how allowing people to hate the gay guy in lipstick and high heels does not protect the gay guy in a suit because once they have thrown the first one in jail they’ll turn their attention to the second.
Yes, we can talk about all that and more. But… why do we even need to talk about lowering the number of people at Pride? Why should that even be something we want?
Look, no matter how little you may personally care to see people wearing collars and assless chaps, they are people. People outside, on the street, at an event that is all about advocating for your rights and freedoms and safety, in a political climate where that is highly necessary. Would you really rather have less people doing that?
It’s really just a matter of being pragmatic: After all, Pride isn’t some exclusive membership perk, it’s a protest for human rights. Obviously that’s a „the more, the better“ situation!
Especially in times where the far-right is growing more powerful and it’s becoming more fashionable to openly hate us again, we really need all hands on deck. So, yeah, you do want the bi wife and her straight husband there, and you want the straight girl with her gay best friend there, and you want the kinky people there, and you want the people in an open relationship there, and you want the teen girls with the fandom-pun protest signs there. You want all of them there. There’s strength in numbers, and why the heck would you want a smaller number of people being loud about supporting your human rights.
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