Ethereal

When you espouse some opinions worth adressing I'll be the first to rebutt them. Tissue?

FallingPianos

I attended the portland pride parade and festival this weekend. Portland is a pretty liberal quirky city, so I imagine our pride festival is more flamboyant then most, but even so its pretty tame compared to how the media tends to portray it.

there were 118 different groups in the parade. about half of them were non profit organizations and charities:

Basic Right Oregon
Sexual Minorities Youth Resource Center
Cascade AIDS Project
Human Right Campaign
etc...

there were also a large number of social organizations:
Portland Gay Men's Chorus
Rosetown Ramblers
PDX Pride Bowling League
etc

a large number of churces:
The Community of Welcoming Congregations
Metropolitan Community Church of Portland
SGI USA Buddhists
Central Lutheran Church
etc

queer friendly businesses in the area:
Yahoo! Inc.
Nike GLBT Friends Employee Network
Intel Corp
Wells Fargo Pride OR/SW WA Team Members Resource Group
etc

gay bars:
The Egyptian Club
Starkys Restaurant
etc

and yes, there were also plenty of drag queens and kings, and and more flamboyant groups:
Portland Leather Alliance
Radical Faeries
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Bad Girls
etc

these latter groups certainly had a strong presence, but they were absolutely not representative of the entire parade or festival.

people also seem to forget that the pride festival is supposed to be fun. the way people dress there isn't usually the same as how they dress elsewhere. people who get their panties all in a bunch about the "freaks" need to loosen up and pull their heads out of there asses.

here is a link to the complete parade line up, if anyone is curious: Pride Northwest, Inc. - Portland, OR

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Urethra Franklin

Oh get over yourself bod. Try actually responding like an adult to the points raised and you may find yourself in a useful, productive discussion.

As for "hateful opinions" - why do the words pot, kettle and black come flying into my head?

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http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=-pW87BM_3fw

laska

I know I'm a straight, Caucasian, LDS guy whose biggest fashion decision in life is whether to wear jeans or sweats each day but imo the 40 mile stretch between Salt Lake City and Orem/Provo/Salem is an extremely beautiful and fun place to live no matter who you are. Here is some data that may surprise you:


U.S. News & World Report, February 22, 1993, observed, "Utah is emerging as one of the nation's premier high-tech meccas, with more software enterprises than California's Silicon Valley and one of the nation's largest concentrations of biotech companies."

The April 23, 1994 issue of The Economist described the 40-mile strip between Salt Lake City and Provo as "the world's second-biggest swathe of software and computer-engineering firms after California's Silicon Valley."

"If you imagine Provo and Orem as quaint, rural hamlets, consider this: the area is home to more than 80 software companies. This may be the best educated county in all the nation as well." Money, September 1991,p.139

"Unlike Silicon Valley, where rivals engage in cutthroat competition, Utah's software companies help one another." Business Week, "Hot Spots," October 19, 1992, p. 84.

Salt Lake City recently nudged out San Francisco as the city with the highest per capita personal computer penetration, according to Scarborough Research ( dossier), a market research firm.

BYU ranks among the top 10 universities whose grads later earn doctorates, 2,116 between 1995 and 2004

Farmers Insurance recently named Provo the number one most secure metropolitan area in America. Based on crime statistics, risk factors of natural disasters and job loss numbers, Provo was ranked the most secure place to live of metropolitan areas with 200,000 residents or more.

Sparsely populated, landlocked and laced with the deserts, mountains and rugged wilderness regions typical of the American West, Utah is an unlikely place to find people who collectively speak 90% of the world's written languages. Time, "Language The State of Many Tongues"

"It is a unique combination: a linguistically and culturally conscious society that is also computer literate," says ALPNET president Thomas Seal. Time, "Language The State of Many Tongues"

Bodhisattva

So... I am discussing things like an adult with others, you come in with insults and nothing else, I bitch slap you, and you are now trying to say that I am acting like a child?

Good job... you lose.

Bye.

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RightinNYC

Moderator's Warning:

Let's keep it polite folks.

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People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

new coup for you

I dunno SLC Punk and Big Love are very convincing.

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And why does your tone suggest that you do not care about children?

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.

laska

Well my perceptions of the Arabs is from Jewel of the Nile riding camels carrying a boom box playing the freaks come out at night. But hey that's me .

Lachean

I think gay pride is about as foolish as white pride in that I find nothing less interesting than circumstances of birth, and that to take pride in something that outside your own volition is folly.

Once a group ceases to be oppressed by the zeitgeist, its time to end the parade. More to the point, what do I care who you ****? Quit holding up traffic just because you want to shove reality down the throat of an annually shrinking group of bigots.

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"Men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity--to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality. " - Ayn Rand

independent_thinker2002

So are gay people ashamed the other 11 months?

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