The people on the other side of the fence

Posted

WEDNESDAY, June 19 — Anyone wandering through Old Town Saturday afternoon might have passed a group of colorfully clad protesters chanting, “We won’t pay to be gay.” Being led by a kazoo-playing dog walker and a clown holding a megaphone, the group marched from Durant Park to deliver a message to the thousands of patrons at the Michigan Pride Festival.

The protesters were part of a larger event called Lansing People’s Pride. Organized by residents of various ages and professions to offer a free, sober commemoration of the LGBTQ movement. Gay, straight and trans people alike gathered in the park to share food, clothes and artistic crafts with one another. The optional march was designed to give a voice to residents who felt the historical practices of LGBTQ gatherings are disappearing from present-day celebrations.

“We were not trying to point fingers at individuals,” said Vivian Thompson, 22, a march leader dressed as a punk carnival barker. “It was done to illustrate the point that what capitalism does is strip us of our identity and sell it back to us.”

Three years ago, while she was enrolled in school studying theater, Thompson nearly lost her love for the art form “because everything was geared toward competition.” Thompson mentioned the work of German playwright Bertolt Brecht, Augusto Boal author of "Theatre of the Oppressed" and Kabuki — a Japanese theatrical style created by geishas dating back to the 1600s — when explaining the artistic intent behind the protest.

“The social function of patronage and recuperation of identity is to dissuade public disobedience,” the former theater student said. “The intent was to demonstrate our existence outside of a corporatized framework. It’s about reminding people that this is still who we are after June is over.”

“So, going back to the people on the other side of that fence, they are us,” Thompson said referring to Michigan Pride attendees. “I think we have a social responsibility to hold each other accountable and remind each other that we live in relation to each other.”

Everything is not okay

While Thompson said she doesn’t take issue with alcohol being served at Pride events, having companies such as Budweiser — which donated $1 to GLAAD for every rainbow-colored bottle sold — advertising is “exploiting a vulnerability” within the LGBTQ community.

According to a study performed by the National Survey on Drug Use in 2015, adults considered as “sexual minorities” are twice as likely to abuse substances compared to heterosexual adults. Leah Bauer, 21, and Michael Ler, 21, attended the free event and echoed the same grievance about Pride celebrations across the U.S.

“It has nothing to do with my struggle, it has nothing to do with queer history. It doesn’t feel like it’s for us,” Bauer said referring to having alcohol companies represented in Pride parades.

Ler and Bauer said there is an over-emphasis in today’s LGBTQ movement on youth. Ler, an MSU student, recently discovered the special collections department in the university’s library where he learned about the effects of the AIDS epidemic in Lansing.

When asked what was one question he’d like to ask a gay elder living in Lansing, Ler said he’d ask them how they would want their experience “reflected and honored in the present day."

Theo, 16, attended the event in Durant Park with other members of Gateway Youth Service’s LGBTQ teen group called TRUE — short for Teens Understanding and Respecting Each-other. The teenager, who was assigned female at birth, said looking back, he had always known he was a boy. He recalled a moment of clarity from his childhood occurring one summer at a lake “having my head shaved” and a boy saying, “’Look at that boy in a girl’s bathing suit.’” 

 Theo also recalled sneaking into Spiral Dance Bar when he was 14, as well as the first time Michigan Pride Festival charged an entry fee in 2016. He said that LGBTQ-friendly places that were “supposed to be our space” are diminishing in Lansing, which is part of why he wanted to support Lansing People’s Pride.

A few years ago, Theo left the public school system due to severe bullying, which he described “as straight out of the movies,” that culminated into him being charged with felonious assault. He said attending Lansing People’s Pride encouraged him to stay in the area.

“As many trans people as I’ve seen today, you don’t normally see that in Lansing," he said. "It’s nice to know I’m not the only one here."

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here




Connect with us