Yesterday I was at our Gay Pride parade in Vancouver, Canada and it was a beautiful day with about 300.000?

people in attendance...everthing was going great..I'm a 57 year old gay guy who's still considered attractive and in good shape...but there was a group of guys(about 29-30 years old )behind me and everytime an entry in the parade went by with older people participating (some in their 80's..some obviously with AIDS) this 1 guy ..attractive enough..but more trendy and you knew his looks wouldn't pass the test of time...every time and older person went by in the parade he would mouth off about how these people should have stayed at home or should be in a home playing cribbage..etc) Obviously he was afraid of aging....At one point I almost turned around ( short of just hauling back and smacking him in the head) and almost said something like: 'You F***king moron..if these people hadn't been here you wouldn't be here today able to party about your gayness.They did all the groundwork so that you could openly be gay in the streets' I, instead, said nothing. What would you have done?

someguy--go ahead organize your own parade..more power to you..I'd go to it....BUT you didn't answer the question..you just used the space as a sounding block for your homophobia..surely you can do better than that.

There will be immature people regardless of what parade it is. In addition to that, some young gays have no idea the HUGE steps that this country has taken in terms of gay rights are really thanks to the older gays (60s, the Boston gays) who have been fighting since the civil rights movements. Ignorance will always be present, but at least you know that SOME of us know our history and the reason why now we have rights that 50 years ago didn't exist. If it had been me, i would have just gotten in the guy's face (I'm 26), and given him a piece of my mind.

I think gay pride parades are stupid. If we're going to have those, I want a white/male/straight pride parade. Oh wait, that would be exclusionary and I'd be a bigot for thinking such a thing...I almost forgot.



Haha, you gays crack me up. Do gays know any other word that that homophobe, or is that just the default reactionary word for anyone who mentions anything about gays that isn't 100% positive? I'm not a homophobe, I just think it's stupid you feel you need your own parade to make yourselves feel better about your sexual orientation. If I so much as mention "gay" around gay people they'll call me a homophobe. Please, learn another word...one that actually applies.

And I would get started on that parade except I'm sure somebody would shoot me down for being so intolerant.

You're such a heterophobe...yeah, doesn't fit, does it?

Actually his behavior was rude - but I would not be so fast to jump on that soap box of yours. I believe the older gay population really let us down. For years these older men married and lived in the closet - very few between 60-80 really did much to advance the cause if you ask me. If they had we would be MUCH better off today.

wow! i would have definatly turned around and put the queen on the floor.
How dare he say such cruel things

I think you did the right thing by not saying anything. Those people were abviously ignorant and would have ignored your comment anyway. It sounds as if they were uncomfortable with the idea of older people who are gay.

I would have turned around and told them to show those people with respect. They were out when he was still in diapers.
It sounds like it was an amazing parade!

Exactly!! can you believe some of these youngster have no idea about the struggles our people have gone through. I would only recommend them find out the history of what allowed them to have a parade in the first place. You know most of these people have never heard of stonewall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_r...

I guess people just think that they are the only reason why the gay marriage issue keeps coming up. They don't know about all the wonderful things our elders did that got us where we are.

I'm with you, I'd have set him straight. It would have taken some restraint to resist your first urge to just smack him one. But he needs to hear what you had to say, and so do some of the others around him who may have been uncertain abouthis message.

Wow, what an asshole. No matter what community you're in there's always going to be assholes.

That just pisses me off that there are people like that, sometimes people diserve to be punched in the face.

Just don't worry not all young people are like that, at least I'm not like it.

What an asshole holy crap.

I think for some there is a mindset that they just don't get what Pride events are about and for. It took me a few years to come to a happy-medium to reconcile the usefulness of Pride.

I'm not a diligent queer, but I am a 31 year old active member of the GLBT community that stands for something other than just another big party. In that, I have come to know and appreciate those who came before me. Thank you to those that started this movement for equality!