{"id":13154,"date":"2010-07-01T11:38:06","date_gmt":"2010-07-01T18:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/nudity-incident-at-pride-fest-brings-questions-editors-note\/"},"modified":"2010-07-01T11:38:06","modified_gmt":"2010-07-01T18:38:06","slug":"nudity-incident-at-pride-fest-brings-questions-editors-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/opinion\/nudity-incident-at-pride-fest-brings-questions-editors-note\/","title":{"rendered":"Nudity incident at Pride Fest brings questions: Editor’s Note"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, I visited Pride Fest<\/a> last Sunday at Seattle Center.<\/a><\/p>\n

For those of you not familiar with it, Pride Fest is Seattle\u2019s celebration of sexuality, in all its facets. It\u2019s a festival about acceptance of our fellow humans \u2013 whether those humans are older folks in North Face jackets, or a guy with a mohawk in a tutu.<\/p>\n

Given its subject matter, Pride Fest is a magnetic north pole for some folks, kryptonite for others.<\/p>\n

I decided to go this year to see what it was all about. And, well, I had a free Sunday.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t stop reading yet. This won\u2019t be a laundry list of the drag queens I saw at the Fun Forest.<\/p>\n

For the most part, it was what I thought it would be \u2013 people of all persuasions voicing their right to live and love how and who they choose.<\/p>\n

But there is one person I would like to describe.<\/p>\n

He was dressed in a skirt and a tank top, hanging out near the outdoor vendors. He was posing for photos with people in the crowd. He must have been my dad\u2019s age.<\/p>\n

As I walked past he was moving his skirt side to side as you would, doing a rumba. And then, without warning, he gleefully hiked the whole outfit up, exposing, well … everything. And he kept the skirt up for a while, doing karate kicks.<\/p>\n

It was repulsive, and there were kids around.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, this was a public event drawing thousands, and I realize organizers can\u2019t control everything. I also realize this fellow felt he had the right to express himself, although it clearly was indecent exposure.<\/p>\n

But I think his choice and my reaction underscore a bigger issue. It\u2019s one of the reasons the straight community sometimes balks at the gay community \u2013 and vice versa \u2013 and why moderate members of both start edging for the door, when their cohorts go off the deep end.<\/p>\n

When someone\u2019s actions are clearly over the top (or in this case, off the bottom) how are you supposed to react? Whose rights do you want to defend?<\/p>\n

I realize this fellow wasn\u2019t an official spokesperson for anyone. And who knows if he was even gay? But he jumped with both feet into the tired cliches straight critics love to point out about the gay community.<\/p>\n

In one respect, I guess we all got equal treatment \u2013 his performance was in universally poor taste. So, in spite of being at Pride Fest, it was not a proud moment for anyone, straight or gay.<\/p>\n

I realize being an American means having freedom of expression \u2013 it is the same liberty that enables me to operate as a member of a free press, and I\u2019ll fight for that with everything I\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

But when I see exhibitions like this, I worry the wording of that basic right may someday be altered. It would be from folks fed up with others choosing to sully that right in ways that are frankly stupid.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom to\u201d may someday be changed to \u201cfreedom from.\u201d It\u2019s a small word change with a huge difference in meaning.<\/p>\n

This Fourth of July, we need remember the rights we have as the greatest democracy on earth.<\/p>\n

But keep in mind that freedom comes with a price. Your liberties are not supposed to infringe on mine, even if it’s just to walk in a public place, enjoying a sunny day in Seattle.<\/p>\n

Respect is a two-way street, even if you\u2019re averse to wearing underwear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, I visited Pride Fest last Sunday at Seattle Center.
\nFor those of you not familiar with it, Pride Fest is Seattle\u2019s celebration of sexuality, in all its facets. It\u2019s a festival about acceptance of our fellow humans \u2013 whether those humans are older folks in North Face jackets, or a guy with a mohawk in a tutu.
\nGiven its subject matter, Pride Fest is a magnetic north pole for some folks, kryptonite for others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13154"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}