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I think LGBT pride parades are a step back and not a step forward for the gay community. It segregates us, stereotypes us, and to me it makes us a laughing stock. Even I find it funny and degrading. Just because you're gay, doesn't mean you have to make a spectacle of yourself or your sexual orientation.

First of all, I've said this to you a hundred times over: It is not our fault that other people stereotype us. Should an effeminate gay guy feel bad because he's the poster child of what other people think about us? The whole point of pride is being true to yourself, and having pride in who you are. That's the whole f**king message, and just as some people lost this when they parade around wearing barely anything at all, YOU people who condemn those who celebrate it have also no clue what it's about.

During black history month black people aren't mocked because they're being too black. Raising the awareness of what black people had to go through to have the freedoms they do now isn't "rubbing it in people's faces". So why, conveniently, when gay pride comes up people turn their noses up?

I have a theory, and this goes for both gay and straight people who have issues with pride. It all comes to femininity being viewed as a weakness. Shiberu, I can tell you exactly why you have a problem with gay stereotypes, and this goes for everyone else. It's because the gay stereotype pictures all gay men as being effeminate, over the top, queens. This bothers you because you assume other people view you this way because you're gay, and that's a problem because females are considered weak in a man's society, and since gay men are compared to females, you feel as though this makes people think of you as weak.

My solution, as I've told you a hundred times over again, STOP CARING WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK ABOUT YOU! It just makes you come off as being bitter, miserable, self-loathers who have nothing better to do than chastise other people for being happy. Let me ask you a question: Have you ever been to a gay pride festival before? Not read about it, heard about it, seen pictures/videos about it, I mean have you physically been there in person and experienced it for yourself? I have, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Trust me, it's probably nothing like you'd thought it'd be because it wasn't for me. I pictured it to be all flamboyant and over the top, but it isn't. Sure there's those few die-hard extremists, but they don't represent the majority.

That's another thing. Just as you are chastising people for being stereotypes, you are no better than those ignorant morons who stereotype us because you're stereotyping people who go to pride yourself. Ignorance is not an excuse. Before you sit there and judge something, I suggest actually going out and experiencing it yourself. Now I'm by no means trying to force it on you, but I absolutely can not stand it when people sit there with their noses turned up, and judge other people for participating in something they enjoy. If anything is setting back the gay movement, it's people like you. How do you expect straight people to accept us if people within our own community are bashing us?

But who's to say what's "normal"? It's just a fallacy that conservatives force down our throats in order to make themselves feel better. It's a fear of change. If you want to talk normal, then technically being gay isn't "normal". Many people use normality to describe something that is accepted by the popular vote, and since more people are straight than gay, being gay isn't normal. Also, news flash, those people who you say should use discretion aren't doing it for you. They're doing it as a way to express themselves, and far be it for anyone to tell them how they should express themselves. How does it embarrass you when it has nothing to do with you in the first place? No one's making you prance around in rainbow colored undies.

If you were "just saying", then I wouldn't care, instead you had a cynical approach about it, and just had to put others down. That's not ok, and that's why I said what I said. We aren't going to reach equality by acting like everyone else. We're going to get there by actually doing something about the way we're being treated. We're going to get there by fighting for it, by standing together, and by not fighting amongst ourselves. Like I said, the ones truly holding us back are the self-hating community members that enable the rest of society to treat us like second class citizens.

I think part of it is that life isn't fair. We all wish we could be accepted for who we are, but we can't. No amount of shouting, screaming and protesting will change that. People don't like what isn't seen as normal for them. There's really just the option of don't care what they think or changing for them. Realistically speaking, acting however you want will never really be accepted. Certain actions are against the law and others are just against society's standards. And those standards don't change just because someone says they should. It takes years and years for even some small insignificant thing to change and even then it doesn't really change much.

Hi. I love you.

I think what you're saying is actually part of the problem. The fatc that people aren't engaged or don't feel things will change and thus don't do anything. If we sit here and let the queer community continue to be harassed, nothing will ever change, except for the worst. We need to stand up and express who we are as people.
For example, if the black community didn't fight and shout and scream and protest, they would still be slaves - and worse, they probably would have been sent to fight in wars and die. Hitler would have targeted them as well.
When we give up our realization of what we can accomplish, we give up our ability to truly live, we give up our humanity. We give up not only ourselves, but we give up everyone and everything.

It's the opposite over here. The number of open LGBTs is rather low (except in one particular area of one beach-side city). Out of 32,000+ students at my university, probably only 100~ are [openly] LGBT.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't try to change things. And in the civil rights movement there were many people that chose to peacefully state their concerns and tried to change things without screaming at the top of their lungs without giving any reasoning or alternatives. What I'm saying is that it is unrealistic to just expect people to bow to your opinion just because you want them to. Sometimes to reason with people you have to follow their rules. And there's also the fact that you can't change everyone's opinon. There's still racism, there's still sexism. You can try to change the majority's opinion, but there will always be a minority that you cannot change. Like do the majority of people really protest against gay rights? No,most people really are at least indifferent. That small portion that is doing the protesting probably aren't going to change. The people to try to influence are the indifferent people, they don't really have an opinion and are probably more open to listening.