from the 12” single, Chrysalis Records, 1983Spent yesterday morning & afternoon in downtown Denver amidst 100,000+ revelers for the annual PrideFest, one of the largest celebrations of its kind in the nation, and it felt damn good to be around so many open-minded people at once. Quite frankly, about 95% of mine & my partner’s friends are straight, which really doesn’t matter one way or the other, but one day a year it’s nice to go out and feel a bit more like part of the gay community; this is not to suggest that everyone there yesterday was queer, as more than ½ of the folks we were there with are straight & went along to support the vibe. To be honest, I don’t feel like my sexuality is even that big of a apart of my identity---let’s get real, how much time a year is actually spent engaged in the sexual activities which define us as straight, bi, gay, trans, et al?! Hell, I spend way more time showering, or watching television, but I still understand the need for fellowship with other gays; I also recognize that my experience growing up was surely not as harrowing or dire as the guys who were “obviously gay” to people, and that had I suffered through the types of abuse and horror stories which are still all too common for many gay & lesbian adolescents, it’s conceivable that being queer would be a larger part of my personality. At any rate, it was a great time spent drinking and smoking weed in the park, and this party anthem by disco-diva Gloria Gaynor pretty much sums it all up nicely, “…I am what I am, I don’t want praise, I don’t want pity; I bang my own drum, some think it’s noise, I think it’s pretty…life’s not worth a damn ‘til you can say: ‘I am what I am’…”
