The Old Gay Heart

 

Gay Pride marchers on Peachtree Street in the Atlanta Gay Pride parade in 2013. Photo by me, October 2013.

Little did I know that Atlanta Gay Pride was this weekend. I knew it was coming up this month, but it sneaked up on me. Every year since the 90s the question has been, will I go or not? Since the festivities were moved to October, from the traditional June several years ago, I have attended the festival and parade fewer times.

The last time I went to Pride other than to celebrate in a club or bar was twelve years ago. Not since 2013 have I stood at the corner of Tenth and Peachtree Streets, my once usual spot, and watched the parade of rainbow flags, corporate floats and “the community” make the turn. I have not even done the bar celebration tour since 2016.

Aging out of the scene at forty-three years old, combined with everyone I regularly hung out with having moved to the far corners of the world, seemed like the perfect time to exit. Hangovers and squeezing into Heretic and Blake's until three in the morning are not indulgences to be proud of at fifty-two. Let others have it and have their fun.

A gay pride logo or the Today Show?

This year's slogan, according to the official organizers, is “Rooted In Resistance.” The companion logo is another raised fist again this year and it has the added bonus of what appears to be long green fingernails overlaying a rising sun or the NBC Today Show logo. What would Bryant Gumble, Jane Pauley and Willard Scott say about that? Oh sorry, wrong decade.

I cannot identify with the slogan or the logo that is stamped on a community event by the official organization. The messaging and image has a violence to it that does not resonate with me. Where is the rainbow? Pride seems to no longer officially represent me as being part of the community. So many letters have been added to the community that the G for gay has gone from being shoved to the side to being shoved over the cliff.

A truly terrible photo of me at Atlanta Gay Pride in Piedmont Park in 1998 when it meant something to me.  One of too many film photos in my lifetime with my eyes closed. 

If Gay Pride was born in anything, it was in being proud of who we were, who we loved and not being ashamed of it. “Rooted” and “resistance” are meaningless words of the modern activist lexicon that leaves this red-blooded, rainbow-beating gay heart cold. Gay Pride needs to bring back the G, the original rainbow flag and the celebration of love in a world sorely needing it.

Atlanta Celebrates Photography Festival 2013

Photo by me, October 2013.

On Saturday, October the 19th, I hopped off the subway in the rain at the Arts Center Station for a worthwhile detour - a photography exhibition. The My Atlanta Exhibition, a part of the Atlanta Celebrates Photography Festival, was being held at the community center inside the 14th Street gate at Piedmont Park.

Photo by me, October 2013.

I arrived late, having read some incorrect information in the local alternative weekly, and only one other person was present. The park staff sighed and grumbled under their breath that I did not have much time to absorb all the wonderful photos mounting the walls before I was going to be kicked out. My experience was not off to a great start. I wanted to linger, admire the photos and not feel rushed.

Photo by me, October 2013.

Many of the photos lining the walls were from twenty schools around the city. I was impressed with the quality and technique some of the students had displayed. It was a pleasant mix of landscape, street, casual, family and portrait photography. I enjoyed some of the intimate moments on display, being the voyeur spying into the private lives of other people. There were a few street photos, especially those shot in the rain, that I was jealous that I had not taken, but it also inspired me more in my own photography.

Photo by me, October 2013.

Photo by me, October 2013.

On October 26th the photos will come down between 10AM and 1PM, but you might still be able to get in and see them during that day as well.