Local gay residents, Halo co-owner Babak Movahedi (left), author Tim Bergling, activists Frank Kameny and Cheryl Spector and nightlife promoter Karl Jones joined other gay Washingtonians in reminiscing about Pride and its meaning. (Blade photo Henry Linser)
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Friday, June 08, 2007
Pride means many things to many people from all kinds of backgrounds and our cover story and photo shoot is a good example of that.
Long-time activists Frank Kameny and Cheryl Spector have led the charge for many years. Tim Bergling is a former Marine and author of three books about gay male culture. Babak Movahedi is co-owner
of the über-chic bar Halo, and Karl Jones is a promoter of alternate queer nightlife events.
They and several others took a few minutes to ponder the meaning of Pride on the eve of D.C.’s 32nd annual Capital Pride, which is in full swing this weekend. From party to protest, their responses show Pride is almost as diverse as the members who make up what they call “the GLBT community.”
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
I had the honor of being a Capital Pride Hero in 2006 and the opportunity to share this significant moment with many outstanding leaders from our community. It means a lot to me when our own community recognizes the work we do to advance our rights.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
I think the purpose of Pride should be to celebrate the strong positive presence and contributions of our diverse GLBT community to the overall development of our great city.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I wouldn’t change anything. It is a great event that brings together people from all sectors of our community to celebrate in unity.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
I have very fond memories of producing the “Field of Dreams” party in Stead Park for Capital Pride.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
Pride should be an opportunity for all gay (and other sexual orientation-marginalized people) to come together and feel good about being who we are.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I would move it back to a place where our community can have more of a sense of ownership of the event. I think it lost a bit of its soul when it moved down to Pennsylvania Avenue.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
It’s awfully hard to separate out just one fond memory — my first D.C. Pride was 1981, and I haven’t missed many — but probably the one that stands out most in my mind was 1996, when I marched with other gay veterans in my old Marine Corps dress blues, carrying this massive flag. It was 95 degrees that day, and I thought I was going to pass out somewhere between Dupont Circle and Pennsylvania Avenue! But seeing all the folks along the parade route, hearing the cheers and applause as we passed, was pretty damn emotional and uplifting. And it was the last time that uniform still fit me!
What should be the purpose of Pride?
There “should” be no single purpose. Pride Day is, like anything else, exactly what you want to make of it. For some folks it’s all about visibility and political action, for others it’s a celebration of diversity under the summer sun, for lots of people it’s just a day to get out and mingle and boy watch and toss back a few beers on a Sunday afternoon. I think for me it’s always been a mixture of all three.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I’d ditch the separate Saturday evening parade and bring back the Sunday parade that leads directly into the festival. It always seemed like a much better demonstration of our numbers and purpose to let folks watch the parade go by, then fall into step at the tail end and march in thousands across the city to the festival site itself. I’ve never heard a good justification for why they stopped doing that. Don’t gay people always want to be part of the show? Why not let them?
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
The same moment repeats every year. Being in the crowd and realizing as I wade through a sea of diverse peoples that in spite of our varied stratifications, we are a community, and we have strength in it.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
To reflect on our identity, purpose and direction as gay people, not just our self-esteem. Otherwise, Pride is of limited benefit, if not completely masturbatory. We are scouts of culture on the vanguard of society. Whether via spirituality, music and the arts, or the healing professions, etc., we have been leaders. We have an inclination to create beauty, foster healing and bring ideas from the psychic edge back to the masses, and we are at an interesting crossroads in our identity that inspires many questions. Pride should engage us to reflect on who we are and inspire us to answer those questions.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I would like to see gay members of various professions come together in solidarity. Can you imagine a parade with floats dedicated to hairdressers, psychologists, bankers, etc.? We need more damn floats. Also, have community/personal development be as much a focus as entertainment and consumerism are currently. How about workshops on a host of topics that affect us, or forums to discuss local issues in the gay community?
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
As someone who struggled to come out and had to deal with family disapproval and disappointment that I’d found the love of my life, I am always moved when the PFLAG contingent marches by in the Pride parade. I love to see those smiling moms, dads, grandmas and other folks waving their “I love my gay son” banners. Those PFLAG marchers give me hope that families can come around to really love their LGBTQ members.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
The purpose of Pride should be whatever people want it to be. It should be a time for folks to feel free to be.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I would love it if Capital Pride was more inclusive. My experience of Capital Pride has been that it is a white gay man event. Because of this perception or reality of Capital Pride, folks organize separate distinct Pride events — Black Pride and Youth Pride. There are ways in which Capital Pride organizers could be deliberate about space for these groups, as well as other underrepresented folks.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
My fondest memory is probably my first Pride back in 1986. I remember going to P Street Beach and seeing so many gay people everywhere. I had just graduated high school and grew up about 50 miles south of here, and it was huge to me to see people like me everywhere. And to see people nothing like me, too! I remember staying all day with a few friends and dancing and just taking in all of it. I do have other memories, as I moved to D.C. that next year and have only missed one Pride since then. If I only knew that day as a little baby preppy dyke where I would end up, I would have never believed it. I still remember seeing the leather women on bikes that day and thinking “Gee, that is so wild, yet, so damned sexy.” And look at me now!
What should be the purpose of Pride?
To me the purpose of Pride has always been to come together and celebrate our lives. We are all so unique as individuals and so diverse as a community. I love to see everyone together just walking hand in hand and in groups and having drag queens smile at leather men and preppy boys smile at butch girls! I have been to many Pride celebrations around the country, some even for a city’s Leather Pride. But being here at home and seeing my own home community come out and be together is awe-inspiring.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I think this year there has been some significant changes in Pride. I am happy to see trans Pride events and the addition of a Ms. Capital Pride Leather. I would like to see the D.C. leather community join in with the official Pride events. The clubs do and the Eagle does, I just wish the Leather Pride event had the foresight to do that — there is always next year!
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
My fondest memory of D.C. Pride is when I was working at Mimi’s [American Bistro, located at 2120 P St., NW] and was allowed to watch the parade march by as I worked. The floats were beautiful, the people were beautiful, but the most moving part was watching the parents march with their children. Not only did it invoke memories of my mother and uncle, but it gave me hope that the struggles will not all be in vain.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
The purpose of pride should be to invoke some sense of hope about the community and to re-energize us about issues. I love that it is the one day of the year that we can pull out our craziness and shove it down the establishment’s throat and also show the array of differences about our lives. But there was a time when the party had purpose. It was a revolutionary call to arms. A rebellion told through our bodies. People should never forget that because we can party all the time, but in this fun there must be the sword of revolution behind it.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
With the visibility we are gaining, Pride can be another way (once again) to mobilize our community into affecting change that benefits us all — from the poorest to the richest, blackest to whitest —especially because we are in the nation’s capital.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
Deborah Cox performing.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
To include events that would further the advancement and acceptance of the gay lifestyle. To facilitate an environment that would draw people of all lifestyles. To include events that would require some participation from the [attendees]. (i.e. 3-on-3 basketball event, possibly a volleyball event, a few games and give aways). There should be some sort of theme in order to make it an exciting, changing event.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
When Pride was running through the city and ending at Freedom Plaza, I thought this was ideal. The idea of a short crowded parade one day and outdoor festival on the next day is not appealing.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
Seeing my partner’s reaction when PFLAG marched by.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
Celebration.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
Less capital, more pride.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
I think mine is a rather stock answer, but in all honesty my fondest memory is the first Pride I went to. And it was here in Washington, D.C., in 1997 — the year I moved here from South Carolina. I remember thinking at the time that the closest thing I ever experienced like it was the parking lot before a Grateful Dead show, but now it was just for gays!
What should be the purpose of Pride?
I do think that the purpose of Pride is about celebration and unity. I think it is one time of the year where we can come together and drop our own internal cliques we have within the community and say as a united group, “Ya know what? We are all in this together.”
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I am not sure what I would change. I mean, there seems to be a little offering of something for everyone. A good portion of the community seems to come out and support it (those that want to). I am one of them that does wholeheartedly! It’s an important celebration. As long as the message stays clear and doesn’t get muddled up in the commercial advantages that such an event can attract then Pride is really what you as a gay person want to make of it and what sharing the experience with your friends, family and partners means to you.
What’s your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
Pride Parade 2006: Playing a game of double Dutch between floats on 17th Street, with all my hyper-fabulous, super sporty and ludicrously attractive jet-setting inner circle … and some drunk yuppies.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
To make me feel loved and to improve the condition of humankind, as should all our efforts.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
Normally I let entropy handle events thrown by other people, but if I were in charge, my first order of business would be to commission the largest float Pride regulations would allow and place my favorite trumpet-blowing mayoral candidate, Faith, atop and send her out first.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
All I can say is I don’t know that there is one specific fondest memory. I look upon the whole event each year as one of the high points of the whole year in every way.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
Exactly what the name implies — to reinforce a pride in our being gay and the rightness of being gay and, separately but supportively to that, to provide a very public visibility for us for the fact that we exist, that we are here and that we are proud of who we are.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
For one thing I would change the name to Gay Pride or Gay and Lesbian Pride. I’ve had letters to the editor in the Blade saying Capital Pride is a closety name. To me it would be Gay Pride. I’m not going quibble about Gay and Lesbian Pride, but they should call it what it is. There’s a lot to be proud of in the capital, but that’s not the point.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
My fondest memory of Pride is seeing the incredible variety of vendors that catered to the gay community. It was amazing to see major corporations at Pride, alongside all the niche gay and lesbian vendors and organizations I never knew existed. It was through Pride that I learned about PEN and D.C.’s LGBT chamber of commerce. It made me realize the incredible untapped economic potential that the gay community possesses, in addition to its great diversity. Let’s not forget the added bonus of the hot guys and ladies everywhere!
What should be the purpose of Pride?
Pride’s main purpose should be empowerment and visibility of our community. However, Pride doesn’t have to have one purpose. It can and should be many things to many people. Its success is based on the fact that all segments of the community can find something to appeal to them from religious groups to service and volunteer organizations to professional and commercial services catering to gays.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
Because we live in D.C., we, above all Pride events, have a unique opportunity and responsibility to try and influence the public policy that prevents same-sex couples from enjoying the same rights as married heterosexual couples. Included in the celebrations, Pride should serve as an annual reminder that we are still not free.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
As a person of faith and an active member of the Celebration of the Spirit Coalition, which presents the annual Capital Pride Interfaith Service each June, my fondest Pride memory is seeing our interfaith service grow and prosper and become an “official” Capital Pride event promoted and supported by the Capital Pride organization. It is wonderful to see a broad section of the LGBTQ faith community — Buddhist, diverse Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Native American, Radical Faerie, Unitarian, Wiccan and more — come together to celebrate both our gay pride and our pride in our varied faith traditions.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
The purpose of Pride should be to celebrate the amazing diversity of our community in all our specificity and unique aspects while at the same time celebrating all that unites us and makes us a community.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
Although we have made great strides over the last decade in making people of faith a more integral and recognized part of the overall celebration of Capital Pride, I would like to see even greater visibility and participation with several faith-related events during the week and some faith-based speakers and musicians — like the wonderful Jason & DeMarco or some of our rockin’ choirs — on the main stage at the Pride festival.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
A tie: 1) Dancing to Laura Branigan sing “Gloria” at the old Frances Field many moons ago. 2) Telling my 25th reunion high school classmates in 2002 that I had to leave early because I was one of the “heroes” of our gay Pride celebration and had to be in the parade.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
To allow everyone to take time and look around to see how fabulous and talented our community really is.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
While I appreciate the visibility of being on Pennsylvania Avenue, I miss the unbridled insanity of Frances Field.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
Marching in the parade and sharing the day with a true friend of our community: Mayor Fenty.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
The purpose of Pride should be to remember and honor our community’s past, celebrate and revel in our present and to motivate us all towards greater goals in the future.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
Capital Pride should use its role in the nation’s capital to serve as a model for celebrating our diversity. Each subgroup in our community has something unique to offer. Too many times our differences serve to divide the LGBT community, rather than to unite us. We should use our pride in self and community to strengthen us a whole.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
Meeting up with friends in our community. It’s very much a family reunion.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
It sounds very cliché, but I do believe Pride is about celebrating the breadth and width of the GLBT community and allowing the entire community to experience our diversity and our richness. Pride exemplifies the complexity of gay culture. If anyone doubts that we have a culture, then they don’t see that Pride is primary evidence of our culture or cultures in the open.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
The events are great and have been developed over time.
I think Pride is always in evolution and change happens with new inclusion and challenges, such as immigrants and the issue of gay marriage. Fortunately our community respects activism — even when it needs to be pushed along.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
During the 1987 Pride Parade, I was in the Gay Men’s Chorus contingent. One of the chorus’ early presidents, Steve Maddox, lived beside the parade route at 22nd and P, NW, but was too weak from AIDS to get out of bed. When we passed that corner, we stopped, turned to face his balcony, and sang “Family” from “Dreamgirls.” It’s hard to believe that was 20 years ago.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
It’s a festival, as it should be. We’ve come a long way, and that’s worth celebrating. Sure, our visibility makes a political statement by itself, and we still need activism, but that is occurring in a thousand ways on a thousand fronts. Pride is a time to come together and survey our diverse community landscape and have some fun.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I’d love to see a greater variety of food.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
My fondest memory is from 2004 when I rode on the leather float. Yes, there was music and the whole group of us on the float were dancing and having a great time, but to see so many different types of people out and having fun was overwhelming. It was humbling yet invigorating at the same time.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
Pride to me should stay true to its roots and should be based on the current political issues. It should be an event whereby we all come together as one community to make a statement about what we are, who we are, what we stand for and what we want.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I would limit the number of official events down to less than a handful and let the bars and clubs do their own thing for Pride. I would turn the parade, especially being in D.C., into a march. As a community, we have become complacent about our rights, we have become complacent about how we organize, and I think it’s time to revert back to a more grassroots approach. I would also focus more on D.C. issues, not capital issues. It’s part of the problem in living in D.C. Everyone’s focused on D.C. being the capital, and local D.C. issues get lost or run over.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
While marching in Pride with KhushD.C., I remember singing along to a South Asian song we were playing and feeling proud to be with my fellow South Asian LGBTQ community. Also, seeing the look of pride and wonder on the South Asian faces in the crowd as our contingent walked by was a great feeling.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
Pride should be about celebrating the diversity in our community: diversity of cultures, genders, sexualities, etc.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
I wish Pride had greater visibility of marginalized groups, for example immigrants, transgender people, working-class people, etc. It would be great if Pride were more of a grassroots event that better represented the many concerns of our communities.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
Getting “hammertime” at JR.’s and watching the parade. It was like one of those all-day binge drink-a-thons from college only everyone was gay. And slightly older. And less frat-tastic.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
I think for me first and foremost, Pride is just a fun summer event, but what makes it special is that you see so many more gay people than you ever even knew existed. I think most of the time you see the same faces when you go out to the same bars every weekend (or weeknight...), but at Pride it seems like peeps are just coming out of the woodwork.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
What really annoyed me last year sort of ties in with what I like about it. It’s great that so many random people come out, but it sucks that the lines at all the bars are wrapped around the block.
What is your fondest memory of a D.C. Pride event?
Seeing that I am a [Capital Pride] virgin, my fondest memory is unfolding as I build my first Pride float for Be Bar.
What should be the purpose of Pride?
A means to give back to the community and demonstrate the creativity, diversity and interest within the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
What would you change about Capital Pride?
Perhaps having the parade and the festival on the same day, but other than that, it is the perfect weekend to create space for our community in an unforgiving environment.
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