Thread by @delaneykingrox

Pride March is not a tourist event, it is a protest. It is not something to slap your corporate logo on or sanitise to sell tickets.
It is a protest.
It will be until we are included completely, indivisible and equal.

The police are not welcome as they are part of what we are protesting against.

Pride started as a riot, that was triggered because of a violent, dehumanising police raid.

The police cannot be part of pride until all that stops.

Seeing businesses support us as we march is fantastic. But it is not about them. It is about us.

They either support us year round, or they don't deserve to advertise there.

Being queer means to be outside, to be deemed 'other', 'abnormal'.

So kink is very much part of falling under the catch all meaning of 'queer'. It is considered 'other', 'deviant'.

So should kink be part of pride?

Yes. It is a protest against that harmful othering.

When I marched under the giant rainbow flag in Sydney the year we protested marriage equality, I was under there with so many strangers. Holding that giant flag up was emotional for all of us, we had all faced cruelty, brutality, unfairness, loneliness, depression, hate.

Carrying that flag felt like I belonged, and that we were together, a big family, and we all understood. All of us, under that flag were normal people, humans, kindred. And that is what pride means.

Pride is a protest. We aren't monsters. We are just people.

Pride is a protest.

End that othering. Broaden society to fit the truth of humanity in all its colours.

We didn't steal the rainbow. Humans ARE the rainbow. But only a few colors are deemed "acceptable". We march for the right to be the colors we are.

Sex workers are human. Kinks of all varieties are actually very common, and healthy. Relationship structures outside monogamous straight pairs aren't rare.

Pride absolutely should not be excluding of the 'othered'.

Look, I had the shit beaten out of me two cops because I was trans. I was tortured for hours. They got away with it. They faked documents, erased surveillance tapes.

My fave bookstore was raided and the owners leg smashed. By cops.

You think I want to march behind cops?

So if you want to include cops in pride marches but exclude leather daddies or pet players, or rope bottoms or sex workers than you have NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT WE ARE PROTESTING AGAINST.

Because safe, sane, consentual sure doesn't appear on any police badge I ever seen.

We need to defund police and fund social work and initiatives that make society fairer, happier, less desperate. We need social change, better distribution of taxation, shelters, addiction programs, healthcare.

We don't need everything to be dealt with by poorly trained thugs

Pepper spray is agony. It lasts for hours, even when washed out, burning your whole body. It is, quite simply, torture. The mental effects stay with you.

You wanna compare that to a consensual shibari session?

Kink isn't the evil here.

"But think of the children!"

The whole point is making society safer and healthier for us all- including them if they are LGBTIQA+ or their friends, kids or colleagues.
You should be ensuring your kids a healthy sex education as and when it is appropriate, so they are ready

You know that well adjusted kids who go to pride events are like super chill around all this stuff. They find it amusing at most or don't even notice it.

"Cool leather dog outfit. I can't believe they haven't died of heat exhaustion." I heard one say.

The call to ban the kink elements is corporations wanting to sanitise so they can sell products.

That is putting us back into the "othered" category. The unacceptable.

It is the very thing we march against.

You got this far? Good.

Plenty of LGBTIQS+ charities could use a dollar or two. Maybe reward this by donating to trans shelters or bail funds.

Thanks. X

*LGBTIQA