Move the Parade

While our community owes a great deal of respect and appreciation to the Pride Parade committee for their ability to organize and promote Chicago’s annual Pride Parade, I think it is now time for us to conduct this parade where it belongs—where other noteworthy events take place—through the downtown streets of Chicago. Since the Irish don’t march in Bridgeport for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Puerto Rican community kicks off their annual event for the entire city to watch ( as opposed to holding it in Humboldt Park), I think it is high time we take our “Pride” into the heart of the city.

We are in awe of the fact that 450,00 people watch the parade. Perhaps a million people could be viewing this event if they knew this was really a public and a city event. We host this parade in Lakeview (as some would argue) because it is the center of the gay community and people feel “safe” in their neighborhood.

I think it’s time we feel “safe” anywhere we go. The parade could serve as a catalyst for true pride and could serve to bolster the individual spirit of each gay/lesbian/transgendered person who would feel some sort of exhilaration (I’m sure) by proudly being visible beyond the confines of a neighborhood that was once predominately gay. We are everywhere. From Hegewisch to Rogers Park, we work, play and exist.

However, we know this will never happen. If the parade took place downtown, how would all the bar owners make their hundreds of thousands of dollars on that weekend?

So prove me wrong—try it one year and see what happens. After all, true pride marches in full view for the world to see—and not in someone’s “backyard.”

Greg Lindeman

Chicago

Dump the Parade

A half a million people thronged Lakeview in late June to watch the Gay Pride Parade snake its way up Halsted and down Broadway. Some claim that this is the largest parade in Chicago. This year’s version was undisputedly a large and long event. But what did these half a million revelers get to see? Not much indicative of the vibrancy, creativity and achievements of Chicago’s gay community. There were the glad-handling politicians and some marching bands. Waving representatives of community groups trundled by on cars, trucks and trolleys and the always droll Righteously Outrageous Twirling Corps tossed their guns. All in all, it was standard and uninspiring parade fare. Watching the parade, I found myself asking, “Where are the clever themed floats, the political and social satire?”

What wasn’t missing, however, was commercial advertising. Float after float rolled by—most little more than mobile billboards flogging vodka, breath mints and realty companies—tarted up for the day with gyrating Speedo-clad go-go boys. There are those who will argue that this corporate attention is a measure of progress and acceptance. Perhaps, but it certainly isn’t new or novel. Savvy companies long ago discovered the buying power of the urban gay and lesbian communities and they chase their disposable income everyday. If Gay Pride is meant to celebrate and reflect a community, the Parade needs to be reinvigorated—or better yet, jettisoned.

Instead of a parade, why not close down Broadway and Halsted in Boystown and create uniquely themed entertainment and “meeting” areas on each block to celebrate gay Chicago? There would be stages devoted to music—with bands, choruses and classical quartets interspersed throughout the neighborhood. Instead of parading, they would be performing. There would be areas for street dancing—techno at one end of the street, country line dancing at another. Neighborhood artists—professional and amateur—would have a few blocks to set up stands with their paintings and crafts. Theater companies and community theater groups would have open-air stages to perform one act plays. There would be a writers corner, with writers reading their work, and a ‘“Bughouse Square” where you could debate issues of the day.

No, this wouldn’t be Market Days or any other Chicago summer street fair. The event would be distinct in two ways. First, the focus would be on participation and not observation. Anyone could put on a display or event. Musically inclined? Grab your guitar and join a jam. An avid gardener? Open your yard to guided tours. The day would be a grassroots event put on not just for the community, but by the community, with its scope and content determined by the community. Second, the day would be a refuge from the constant consumption that characterizes urban life. Nothing would be for sale. Need a beer or a bottle of water after singing or dancing? Visit one of the stores that have contributed so much to making Lakeview a vibrant community.

The festival would have three simple goals: to highlight, celebrate and share the creativity of the gay community and its contribution to Chicago. It would strive to do so in a unique and, perhaps, radical way. If this all comes across as a bit too highbrow, there could also be a stage with a non-stop go-go boy review. At least then the boys would be dancing for themselves and the community and not a corporate paymaster.

Charles Levesque

Chicago