Many North Texans will undoubtedly be heading south to Austin this weekend for our capital city’s Pride celebration. But before you head out, you may just want to read up on some major drama that’s apparently going on behind the scenes.
In fact, things are so bad that it looks like a group called QueerBomb! is staging an alternative to Pride. An alternative to Pride? Blasphemy!
QueerBomb! calls itself “a flash force assembly of LGBTQIA individuals.” And the group alleges that “the strategy and structure of Austin Pride” is “non-inclusive, capitalist, heteronormative, safe and unchallenging.” (Seriously, though, since when would we have our Pride any other way?)
The Austin Chronicle reports that the controversy all started after the Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce took over sole responsibility for Pride last year, setting up the Austin Gay and Lesbian Pride Foundation. Despite a successful event in 2009, the chamber abruptly ousted its president and replaced him with Chad Peevy. Peevy, who now serves as both president of the chamber and chairman of the Pride Foundation board, also happens to own the company that is promoting pride. Conflict of interest? You decide.
But it doesn’t end there. According to the Chronicle, the Pride Foundation revoked an invitation to local performer Nakia after Nakia also booked a separate gig at a QueerBomb!-affiliated event on Saturday night. The Pride Foundation also turned down Sandra Bernhard because, according to Peavy, she’s “too vulgar for a family-friendly event.”
Finally, and this is by far the most shocking allegation of all, the HIV/AIDS charity Project Transitions wanted to bring one of its long-running galas under the Austin Pride umbrella. But Austin Pride allegedly told Project Transitions no because the charity couldn’t pay enough. What???
Needless to say, none of this exactly makes us proud — unless you mean proud to live in Dallas.
8 Comments
Has the Baptist General Convention of Texas taken over Austin Pride? What’s with all the conservative junk???
I am seriously rethinking giving Austin Pride my 10 bucks to go to their exclusive block party.
A quote from De Humphries, board member of Austin Pride organizers: if “bisexuals and transvestites” want to be represented, they need to “do it themselves” and stop “pissing on our parade.”
Will definitely be attending QueerBomb and invoking the true spirit of Pride.
The corporatocracy will not be impeded.
Fuck the corporatocracy!
You might be proud to live in Dallas, but I’m prouder than ever to live in Austin. I have my beef with the shenanigans at the Pride Foundation of course, but the “alternative” of QueerBomb has always been sorely needed. Since their inceptions, pride parades across our nation (with a few notable exceptions) have striven to put on a nice show for the straits to see that we’re “acceptable,” and there’s a place for that. There are plenty of normal, khaki-wearing happy homosexuals who just want to keep their jobs, get married, or serve in the military, and they should have every opportunity to express that and gain acceptance.
But there are plenty of us who are not and don’t want to be “normal.” Redefining your community to meet the mainstream definition of “acceptable” isn’t really making any inroads, and that’s why there should be an opportunity to boogie down the street in the wildest, most transgressive way we can. And we’re finally doing it. We’re doing it first. Hide and watch: pride committees across the nation will take heed, create, and promote similar events, or they’ll see “competition” springing up in the unlikeliest places.
@Dave In Austin
Dave… have you even attended previous Pride celebrations in Austin? This is the first year that such a conservative hammer has come down on the community. Last year’s Pride especially was 100% inclusive… not a single person was turned away or told to do anything but be themselves. This IS something new in Austin… it’s not how all prides have been and hopefully it’s how no future prides will be.
I’ve been to five of them. Nothing wrong with them, they’re just rather boring compared to, say, San Francisco or L.A. Pride. We’ve always had a (relatively) family friendly, educational Pride which is totally reasonable and respectable. It’s always been and always will be a valid conversation: how much do we want to push the envelope vs. how much we want to gain visibility in the “good as you” camp. There’s a good article from 2008 here: https://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:635095
My favorite thing about the article is Ceci Gratias, who is prominently quoted defending the tameness of Austin Pride, is helping organize and promote Queerbomb after having left the Pride Foundation due to the goings-on. My point is that the bisection of the event into one for mass consumption and one for mass transgression is a very exciting thing. In the intro to #189 at https://podcasts.thestranger.com/savagelove/ Dan Savage makes the case for exactly what we’re doing here. The local politics were just the spark on tinder.
The way I look at it is the Pride event and the Parade are run by volunteers. They do the best they can. And these volunteers stem from the AGLCC, the Austin Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. It’s a business-oriented organization, and they shouldn’t looking for controversial events. They should be increasing awareness of the Gay Dollar, and allowing networking opportunities.
The previous president of the AGLCC, that was “ousted” in 2009, thrived on controversy. He said the more controversial, the better the publicity, and that there was “no bad publicity”.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I think Austin has room to grow, and that isn’t a bad thing at all!
for the record, condoms weren’t allowed to be thrown out at this year’s austin pride parade.