Gay pride
Stonewall club, New York, photocredit unidentified
Definition
The gay pride campaign of the gay rights movement has three main premises: that people should be proud of what they are, that sexual diversity is a gift, and that sexual orientation is inherent and cannot be intentionally altered. Marches celebrating gay pride (pride parades) are celebrated worldwide. Symbols of gay pride include the rainbow flag and pink and black triangles.
The movement may arguably be seen as analogous to the "Black is Beautiful" movement in the United States during the 1970s. Just as African-Americans argued that beauty should not be solely defined by the standards of the ethnic majority, members of the gay pride movement argue that the inherent worth of homosexuality should not be defined in terms of the heterosexual majority.
Activist L. Craig Schoonmaker claims to have coined the term "gay pride" in description of the 1969 Stonewall riots. [1]
Opposition
Social conservatives generally disagree with the premise that sexual orientation is inherent and fixed, and many of these persons thus oppose the gay pride campaign.
A portion of homosexual men and women reject the notion of gay pride, perceiving therein an undue emphasis on sex and a lack of discretion and modesty to the detriment of either public morals or the cause of gay rights. They believe it necessary to forgo what they perceive as strident activism in order to better integrate themselves into the mainstream. Others see gay pride as putting too much emphasis on the view that sexual orientation is fixed, and that as such, homosexuality is more of a sexual disability than a natural phenomenon. Still others see it as depreciative of the identity of the individual; that one's sexual orientaion should not be one's qiuntessential defining characteristic.
Critics of this position regard it as pandering to homophobia.
See also: homosexuality --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_pride [2004]
Civil rights [...]
Civil rights are those legal rights granted to citizens by the government. Examples include the right to vote and anti-discrimination laws. Civil rights movements usually want equal protection of the laws for minorities, as well as new laws outlawing discrimination and its vestiges. Civil rights effectively upholds the values of positive liberty. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_rights [Oct 2004]Gay rights timeline [...]
Gayhistory.com [...]
Gayhistory.com is an introduction to the stories and the people of modern gay history (1700-1973). The site is an ongoing project and most articles about gay male history from 1700-1900 have been completed. -- Andrew Wikholm http://www.gayhistory.com/ [Sept 2004]
The very idea of a unique tradition of gay-male writing began relatively recently. Early in the 20th century, homosexual writers began to write more honestly. Yet writers, both gay and straight, have written about the experience of homosexuality since ancient times. In his encyclopedic overview, Gregory Woods has knitted together a transhistorical and transcultural history--a tradition--of gay-male writing over the centuries. Using a broad but readily applicable definition of gay literature that includes works by openly gay men, works in which homosexual activity occurs, and works that manifest a gay "sensibility," Woods manages to move us from Homer to David Leavitt, from Arabic poets of the classical age to contemporary South African poetry, from closeted Victorian memoirs to AIDS literature. By its nature, A History of Gay Literature lacks the specificity of critique that illuminates individual work, but this approach is more than compensated for by the book's ability to locate and discuss amazing similarities of experience and expression throughout history and culture. Highly intelligent, jauntily written, and endlessly informative, A History of Gay Literature is an impressive addition to contemporary gay scholarship. --Amazon.com
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