#i'm still not sure if the queen is homophobic or not... i will report on this later

[messrsbyler]

so much could've been avoided if they'd closed those curtains

[moved10-17-22]

I posted this on Twitter and I'm posting this here now. This is the combined version of two different posts, so bear with me if it doesn't line up perfectly.

Kink belongs at pride. Period. Kinksters and sex workers were the founders of our movement. Leathermen were major allies in the aids crisis. They helped raise money and care for lgbt who couldn't get care. Kinksters, sex workers, and drag kings/queens fought by our side for the rights we have today. Pride was a protest in support of "perverted sexuality" It was NEVER meant for children. If you don't feel comfortable bringing your child, that's fine, but you don't get to demand that pride changes because you are offended. And you don't get ro demand how other parents decide ro teach their kids. There are family pride events that you can go to where there is no kink. There are spaces for you. Pride, however, is our space.

I've already talked about how kink should be at pride because it is part of our history, so now I'm going to talk about the "protect the children" attitude. There is no sexual acts happening at pride, so why are assless chaps, harnesses, and pup gear bad? You might claim because kink is sexual, but that's not true. The basis of kink is an act that brings pleasure to an individual. Whether that be emotional, physical, or sexual. Many kinksters don't just participate for sexual pleasure. There are plenty of sex-repulsed aces that are kinky, and most kinksters report having first indulged in their kinks at very young ages. Children don't have sexual urges until they hit puberty. So if kink isn't inherently sexual, then the issue MUST be the nudity, right? WRONG! Children are allowed at beaches where men and women both wear less than a lot of kinksters. They're also allowed at Carnivale, and Mardi Gras celebrations. Children are even allowed at nudist beaches and colonies. So now there's a question to ask yourself.

"If kink isn't inherently sexual and children are allowed around nudity, then why shouldn't kids and kink be allowed at Pride?"

Take a look at these pictures. What's the difference here?

The answer is nothing other than the fact that the people in the first picture are gay. It's homophobia. Nudity isn't bad unless it has to do with the LGBT. And before you argue, I'm pretty sure you would be saying all these pictures were inappropriate if they were all from Pride.

Something else to consider is that kink has been shown to kids for a long time now. Cartoons frequently show kinks including inflation, age regression, drag, and more. Kids don't think anything of it if they aren't already interested.

This last part I'm stealing from someone else, because I think it's a very good point.

People talk about consent in the way that "I don't consent to seeing kink at pride" but by saying that, they don't really understand what consent is or how bad this idea that they have to consent to someone else's clothing really is.

The laws that banned trans people from wearing clothes that represented their gender were based on the idea that people in their day-to-day life "didn't consent" to men wearing female clothing or women wearing male clothing. You are using the same logic here to stop people from expressing themselves. You can't argue that it's inherently sexual, as I've already covered that. And I've also covered why nudity isn't the issue here. Aside from that, consent centers around the idea that something shouldn't be done TO YOU without your permission. Someone wearing a pup mask or a leather harness isn't involving you in any way. And in the end, if you STILL want to insist that there needs to be consent for you to see kink, well you consented the MOMENT you chose to go to the main Pride event rather than a family one. Kink is part of Pride, whether you like it or not. You don't go to a beach and complain there are bikinis. You don't go to Mardi Gras and complain there are scantily dressed dancers. You don't go to a nudist colony and complain people are naked. You know what happens at these places before you go, so you have no right to complain that you see these things when you get there.

And you want to know something? This Pride discourse didn't originate with the LGBT+ It originally came from homophobic trolls and TERFs that would create accounts and pretend to be LGBT to get a rise out of people. To make is seem like they had a leg in this race. Then once Pride was done and over, they would disappear, only to resurface again the next year to do the same song and dance. So congrats! You've fallen into their trap! You've done EXACTLY what these assholes wanted!