Cardiff Pride?
Submitted by dgchampken on 1st October 2008
WORDS: Danny Champken (Youth Editorial Group)
The Cardiff Pride Committee was set up earlier this year as a response to the decision that the Cardiff Mardi Gras would not be taking place in 2008. The free annual event was due to celebrate it’s tenth successive year in the Welsh capital, but was forced to take a year out due to insufficient funding, but with the promise of a spectacularly glittering event in 2009. Alas, the shock of the south Wales gay community was quickly overtaken by a feeling of outrage and determination, hence the Cardiff Pride Committee was set up to host a similar event on Sat 6 Sept 2008, with assurance that most would be willing to pay for entry.
And so, the planning began. The Pride Committee called for volunteers to help arrange the event, with yours truly responding enthusiastically to help set up in the lead up to the event, and on the day. Tickets went on sale via Ticketmaster well in advance, the line-up and events were announced, and sufficient excitement was stirred up by the promise of an appearance by one Phil Olivier and the recently crowned Celebrity Masterchef, Liz McLarnon. There was also the promise of the first ever lesbian-only Diva tent within the main event in Cooper's Field, and also the first ever men-only Come To Daddy tent, a hangout to which the bears and cubs would flock, and which I myself was particularly looking forward to.
The announcement that the main event in Cooper's Field was to be cancelled arrived only the day before, meaning that many a far-travelling potential attendee had already touched base in the Welsh capital, only to be disappointed. And, indeed, the overall response was the less than favourable from most. I received several despairing text messages from dismayed friends (I hasten to add at this point that, despite being somewhat disappointed myself at the cancellation, I was not quite reduced to the hysterics that I witnessed of several others). Anyone who actually saw the state of the waterlogged Cooper's Field that day - after several days of torrential rain - would agree that cancellation was unavoidable (see picture). Nevertheless, the admirable efforts of the Cardiff Pride Committee to relocate many of the events must be applauded.
In order to ensure that all could still have a gay day, the organisers worked tirelessly alongside the Cardiff Council and the police, and successfully relocated much of the event. A stage was erected in Churchill Way in the space of a day, and the street party hosted by popular gay club Pulse was attended by many more Pride attendees than previously anticipated. These numbers did not, however, live up to the estimated numbers for the main event, and it is safe to say that Cardiff Pride 2008 went up in a puff of smoke.
The aftermath of the somewhat less than enthusiastic Cardiff Pride 2008 - the self-professed ‘best gay event in Cardiff yet’ - has led me to question what exactly is out there in Cardiff to appeal to the city’s gay youth. The demise of the event could be seen as a reflection of the existence, or lack thereof, of anything else open to the gay youth of Cardiff. The amount of excitement that leads up to one event every year, whether it be Mardi Gras or Pride, is truly indicative that there is a distinct lack of evident and open ‘pride’ for our young gay community for 364 days of the year.
It also raises an inevitable controversy, as open homosexuality tends to do, forcing us to acknowledge a very topical argument: is one day of open gay pride per year enough for us, or is a whole day dedicated to the pride of homosexual people even necessary? I know I would be more inclined to argue for the former. I firmly believe that more fervent celebration of self-acceptance and pride is necessary in order to counter the prejudices that are arguably still rife in our community. An explosion of awareness is necessary in order to achieve long-term acceptance, and the integration of homosexuality into the norms of our society. I do, however, also respect the view that such an event should not even be necessary, not least because I believe that such displays of pride should be more frequent.
Clearly, I have used the word pride freely and gladly in this article; the word is, however, oxymoronic in what we would hope it to achieve. Being gay is not something to be proud of, as such. The pride should be of oneself. A person’s sexuality is just as much an integral and unchangeable part of them as their nationality, for example; something that we are born with, hence the very idea of gay pride being a little hypocritical if we are to achieve true equality in society. The growing number of gay night clubbing venues in the Welsh capital, whilst potentially positive in the respect of growing acceptance, could also be indicative of a sense of the underground, of the gay community only coming alive at night.
My ideal would be for more community societies and events in Cardiff to allow the gay youth to openly and frequently celebrate being themselves, so that we are not forced to wait for that one day a year when we can don a glittered cowboy hat and wave a rainbow flag under the noses of those that would usually be more inclined to blow their noses with it.
LINKS
Add your comment
Only registered users can post comments. Please Login or Register