I 've always had a thing for hot muscle daddy Henry Rollins. The former Black Flag frontman, one-time talk show host and actor recently wrote an article for the LA Times called Gay Marriage Is Punk Rock. While celebrating the passing of marriage equality in Washington State the LGBT ally wondered in his article when will we get past labels and just call same-sex nuptials what they are: "marriage," no prefix, no suffix, no "othering."
"Marriage equality is a term so ridiculous on its face that when you hear it mentioned, you would think you were in Riyadh. Years from now, perhaps we can lose the equality part, the same-sex part and call it what it is -- marriage. As much as the homophobes, an ever-thinning herd, whines and screeches, the earth is shifting underneath their feet and things are getting better all the time. This is going to be an incredible century. Didn't get off to a very good start but we are making some bold and exciting strides forward."
Here's what he also had to say about gay prode marches and why he feels one day they won't be known as such: "One day, there will be no gay-pride parades because there simply won't be a need for them. Years from now, those who marched will be seen as heroic."
While I agree on some parts of what Henry is saying in regards to marches, I do feel we will always need gay pride parades to exist as a reminder to those people out there who are not familiar with LGBT history - the thousands of LGBT people from the Stonewall riots to Act Up to the unfortunate AIDS holocaust in the early 80's who have paved the way for so many to live their lives out in the open without shame or ridicule. i feel if the parades go by the wayside gay will not remember their history. The one thing we cannot have is complacancy in this world, especially since we have a long way to go in order to get full equality.
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