WS 504 Pride Parade

Listen to “WS 504 Pride Parade” on Spreaker.

 

WS 504 Pride Parade

 

Ever wanted to attend a Pride Parade, but you’re not quite sure if you’d fit in? Learn about the history of Pride, some context for why we march, and a little about the letters that make up our acronym! All the letters have meaning in LGBTQIA+, and sometimes we get extra fancy and add more letters (and more meaning). Remember, if you attend Pride, you will see Leather folx, and, if it’s not a family friendly event, you may also see overt displays of alternative and queer sexuality. Try to keep your cool, and don’t be a bigot. Wear sunscreen, take water, wear a hat, and branch out to other community based events in your area. Is there a Drag Brunch you could attend? You should!

 

(0:04 – 0:11)
When you hear the boong, the boong means the show is, is, is, it’s here. It’s here. We’re here.

(0:12 – 1:23)
I’m here. You’re here. We’re all here.

All is good. Sup homies. It is whore school time and that means good things.

Welcome to whore school. I am Harper. I’m going to teach you about um queer stuff tonight.

Because I can. Because it’s fun. Because it’s amusing.

Let the uh auto mod flip the fuck out as it goes. Oh no, people said the word. That’s fine.

Oh, Miss Michelle is in here. Now I gotta put my headphones on. Tip case.

That way I can hear you. So far in our chat room, if you join us on the discord, uh Enchantrix Empire, um, you can find Alex, Come Eating Man, Goddess’s Little Giggle Slut, Miss Addie just popped in, Kelly the Sweet Girl, Mott, Poovoran, and Nix, Michelle have all joined us in here. We’re gonna be talking tonight about the Pride Parade.

(1:27 – 3:39)
That’s my best attempt at pride music at all. We’re gonna talk a little bit about the history of the Pride Parade. We’re gonna talk about how to behave when you’re at a Pride Parade.

We’re gonna talk about um some uh the letters in LGBTQIA. Plus Alex says, just in case it matters, I used to go by Brandon here. Well hello Brandon slash Alex.

Whoever the hell you want to be, we’ll call you whatever name you want. And I promise I will only add emojis to your names sometimes. Giggle Slut said it’s LGBTQIA2S plus as I currently understand it.

Yeah that adds a two-spirit to it, which is an acknowledgement of Native American um alternative spiritualities, uh sexualities, uh gender expressions. Oh I’ve had four cups of coffee. I’m awake.

Are you awake? Because I’m awake. Let’s do this thing. So first up, who is pride for? Everybody.

Pride is for everybody. Yes Miss Michelle said she loves how inclusive our community is. We’re very inclusive.

We try to make room for absolutely everybody unless you’re a bigot, in which case piss off shithead. Pride rose from the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots. St. Christopher Day Liberation Parade is what became Pride Parades eventually.

(3:40 – 4:44)
How did all this happen? You gotta go back in time. I’m gonna go way the hell back to the 1960s. Not New York, but LA.

1968. At the New Year’s party, undercover police officers raided the Black Cat, which was a gay bar from the 1960s. It was originally a grocery market, but it was a gay bar and laundromat.

Because at midnight on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, it is traditional to kiss, but at that point in time in the United States, kissing somebody of the same gender as yourself was illegal. I know, it’s no longer illegal, thank goodness, for now, but it used to be super duper illegal. 14 people were arrested and charged with assault and public lewdness.

(4:45 – 5:43)
For kissing during the the bar, it was raided by the police because these undercover cops were like, aha, queers. So the police rushed in and patrons were beaten and dragged out of the bar and into the street. So it was not a riot because it was just a bunch of people going, shit, the cops, run.

It was chaos and there was panic and the LAPD beat the shit out of people because they could. It gave rise to two different organizations, the Personal Rights in Defense and Education and South California Council on Religion and the Homophile. On February 11, 1967, they protested what the police were doing, unprovoked police incursion and violence.

(5:43 – 6:03)
And I want you to pay attention. Personal Rights in Defense and Education. Personal p rights are in I defense the and we ignore it education e pride.

(6:08 – 7:04)
I know, Giggleslut says, wait, pride is an acronym? Surprise. This is all before the Stonewall riots. So there was a group in California, in LA, who started PRIDE, Personal Rights in Defense and Education, because they wanted the police lawlessness must be stopped.

I’m reading some signs from their protest and illegal entrapment. Specifically, it was like peace officers, not a stormtrooper, a strop, illegal search and seizure. That that was what they wanted.

I mean, hello? That seems a little on point. Hey, Kylie, holy shit, girl. You’re here.

(7:06 – 7:56)
I missed you. Hi, Kylie. Kylie joined us in the chat.

Sup? Okay, so we can look back in history and see that the struggle against police oversight has been ongoing for a very long time. And overreach. Hey, Addy had asked what was the first charge again? People were arrested for scroll all the way back up.

Assault and public lewdness assault. So you know how the cops get every time they come up and they’re like, I’m gonna punch you in the face. And you go, no, when you put your hands up, right to defend yourself.

Well, that’s assault. You’ve assaulted a police officer. Because you’re not allowed to defend yourself against them anyways.

(8:05 – 8:46)
Moving right on quickly. Just gonna slide past that one. You can probably guess what my opinion is.

And it’s strong. Yeah, the chat room also agrees. That’s dumb.

Okay, so they were protesting against police oversight, overreach. They called on the LAPD to end entrapment, cease illegal searches, and respect the basic rights and dignity of gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals. The 1967 protest at the Black Cat predated the Stonewall riots in New York by two and a half years.

(8:51 – 15:17)
It involved fewer people. It was not as famous, but it’s still one of the first instances when lesbian and gay activists organized and stood up for their rights. And what happened at the Black Cat had legal repercussions as well.

Six of the 14 men arrested during the raid for exchanging New Year’s kisses were convicted of lewd conduct and were liable under California Penal Code Section 647 to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. Two were ultimately required under state law to register and both men appealed to their convictions in federal court, ultimately petitioning the Supreme Court, which declined to consider their cases because they’re cowards and they always have been. Who said that? So in 2008, the Black Cat was designated a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument, as it should be.

Hell yes. So that was the Black Cat. And then we’ve got Stonewall.

What happened at the Stonewall Inn? It’s been called the Stonewall Revolution, the Stonewall Uprising, the Stonewall Rebellion, Stonewall Riots. June 28th, there’s a theme, there’s a reason why Pride Month in the United States is in June, and it’s because of Stonewall. Stonewall’s the thing.

Ali’s an angry face. Yes. Hey, cab.

Okay, so there was a police raid that happened on June 28th, 1969. One more time, we got cops coming into a known gay bar. I guess their quota on arrests were low.

Who the fuck knows? But this time, this time, gays, the lesbians, the bisexual folks, and the transvestite, transsexual, we’re going to use the terms that they would have used at the time, and it would be transvestite, crossdressers, crossdressers, etc. We have different words nowadays than what they used back then. Yeah, they fought back.

It really was a riot across a couple of days, because the cops said, you’re not allowed to wear pants to the ladies, and to the men, you’re not allowed to wear skirts. To which all of them said, fuck you. Stonewall was not a fancy bar.

It was not nice. It was not gentrified. The Stonewall Inn was owned by the mafia, and it catered to the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community, which means most of them were either persons of color, what we would recognize today as trans people, drag queens, hustlers, sex workers, and homeless youth.

Usually, the mafia was tipped off before the police come, so that they can be like, the cops are here. Run. This time, on a Friday night, when the crowds were at their highest, the New York police rushes in and tries to beat the shit out of some queers.

Only there were more queers. There were uh, cops? On day one, we had 10 NYPD officers inside the inn, and five to six hundred supporters outside, rioting in the streets. Because fuck that.

On day two, several NYPD precincts joined in, and a thousand or so supporters inside and outside, raising hell. As they should be. Let me check into the chat, see how everybody’s going over here.

Yeah, Addie said words are fun. Krista and Michelle were going over that last night. Yeah, the words and language for people who are gender non-conforming have changed a lot over the years.

Addie said, I guess some of those words aren’t very nice in English, but in Portuguese and Brazilian culture, travesty has actually been reclaimed, and it’s rather a pretty common term to use. Yes. Hi, Ma.

When’d you get here? Shit. Hi, Ma. Hello.

So, transvestite is very, very simple. It means a person who wears the clothing of the opposite gender expression, assuming a gender binary where there is masculine and feminine. So, if I wear pants, technically I’m a transvestite.

(15:20 – 16:09)
If you wear an unbifurcated garment on your lower half, and you happen to also have a penis, you are also a transvestite. Good job. Transsexual is a person who has their sexual orientation or their sexual expression or their gender expression opposite whatever their biology would convince you they should, quote, have been.

So, transsexual has been shortened down to trans, and occasionally changed to transgender instead of transsexual, because it’s less confusing. Because it’s not really that your sex and gender are… it’s too complex, man. It’s just all too fucking complex.

(16:09 – 16:49)
You were here from the beginning, Ma? Well, shit. I missed it when I was reading out everybody all in a row, and then I just didn’t see that you had popped in, despite the fact that, like, you have a bright red square on the screen. I should have noticed.

Poop. Giggle said, I feel like any description that includes assuming a gender binary, in the very definition, is already kind of losing me. Yeah, I’m way too queer for this shit.

(16:53 – 17:14)
Kylie said, or transgenic, if you’re talking about mice and you’re an idiot. Or just if you’re talking about mice. Do you know they grew a human ear on the back of a mouse? That’s kind of cool.

That’s actually really neat. Weird, but neat. Anyways.

(17:15 – 17:25)
I was waiting for them to grow a nose. Hell yeah. Science, said Miss Michelle.

(17:30 – 20:37)
So if you go to a Pride parade nowadays, it often will come off as a big party. This is because Pride got started in the 60s, into the 70s with the civil rights movement. A lot of people who were involved in gay civil rights were also working very, very hard to advance other minority groups’ rights, including the black civil rights, Cuban civil rights, Puerto Rico.

They were working for pretty much everybody. You may have heard of the Matichine Society. That’s from 1950 in Los Angeles.

Again, there are two major spots, LA and New York, where you run into a whole lot of activism. Lots. In 1959, there was, before the Black Cat and before the rise of the group Pride, at Cooper Donuts.

In 1959, there was a riot, an actual riot, 1966 in San Francisco. Again, drag queens, hustlers, and trans women sitting in Compton’s cafeteria, and the police decided to come in there and arrest them for daring to wear a skirt. That one also was a riot and a food fight.

So that’s pretty good. They also broke all the windows out, and eventually they quelled the riot. After Cooper’s cafeteria replaced all the windows, they came back and broke them again.

Sorry, it’s kind of funny. That one was specifically going after people who were trans, specifically. They went there with the point of trying to arrest people who were wearing the wrong clothing, effectively.

Wackadoos. To make it abundantly clear how they figured out who was wearing a dress or a skirt when they shouldn’t be, oh, they absolutely sexually assaulted those people. They put their hand between their legs and felt around.

They were looking for a dick. If they found one, they would hurt you, and then they’d arrest you, and then they’d beat you. Or maybe they just hurt you and beat you and then arrest you and then beat you some more.

Which is why there was a riot, right? Alex says, gotta love when people get oppressed for doing something that doesn’t hurt anyone, right? Overclothing. How dare a skirt. The fabric of our society will crumble.

(20:40 – 21:22)
Dumbasses. Stupid motherfucker. Anyway, basically, 50s, 60s, 70s, there were a lot of violent little moments because cops like to overstep.

I don’t fucking know. Giggles lets it all. Clothing is gender neutral if you stop being a little bitch about it.

(21:22 – 23:52)
Giggles. Fuck yes. Uh-huh.

It is. Y’all, you, you’ve gotta stop dressing for people who don’t give a shit about you. Dress for yourself and the people that you actually care about.

That’s it. That’s the, that’s that whole sentence. There’s, there’s no need to elaborate.

Why are you, why do you care what some dickhead who doesn’t know your name thinks about you? Fuck that. You don’t give a fuck about some dude. Well, that’s not very feminine.

And it’s not very masculine of you to be trying to police my wardrobe. Piss off, shit brain. So keep in mind the Stonewall were of the LGBT QIA community.

They were the most marginalized within an already marginalized community. The Black Cat, again, fairly marginalized, but they were not quite as low down on the social scale as at the Stonewall. The Compton’s Riot, trans women.

It was aimed directly at trans women. The Cooper’s Donut was again aimed at the most marginalized and vulnerable within an already marginalized and vulnerable community. There’s a reason why Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, P stands for pay it no mind.

I mean, literally pay it no mind. Don’t, don’t even. Two trans women of color became very visible symbols of the Stonewall Riots and the ongoing civil rights movement for gay, lesbian, and trans people in New York.

(23:53 – 24:34)
There you go. Miss Michelle gave us a picture of Marsha P. Johnson. Yes, me, I’m a black woman and Sylvia Rivera, a Latina woman.

Marsha P. Johnson was murdered. I, I, I can’t even like soften that for you. There is a, uh, uh, a documentary.

Why did that word escape my brain? There’s a documentary. I saw it on Netflix about her life and her murder. Uh, she worked with the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.

(24:35 – 25:18)
That’s the name of it. S-T-A-R, star. She was called, uh, the Saint of Christopher Street because Stonewall was on Christopher Street and she worked with, um, a lot of advocacy for people with AIDS.

In 1992, she disappeared. Her body was eventually found in the river. Police initially ruled her death a suicide.

She was 46. Many speculate that she was either murdered, chased into the water, or fell in accidentally. She did not kill herself.

(25:19 – 26:35)
Uh, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson is the Netflix, uh, documentary that you’ll probably want to go and watch. It’s very good. It covers everything.

You need to see it. Take your time. Go watch it.

There you go. Kylie says, one of my all-time favorite movies is Pride about the coalition of minors and the gay community in the UK under Thatcher, and it’s still going strong. When the town council in Durham tried to cancel the Pride parade this year, the minors union paid for it.

Yes, I’ve heard of that. Um, the city council didn’t want to pay for the Pride parade, so the minors paid for it because back when the minors were striking, the, uh, local gay community was like, well, fuck it. We’ll bring you some, uh, like they, they were feeding them and making sure that the minors were supported.

So, uh, unions, remember, they’re like, oh, you supported us? We’ll support you. We got you. Working class solidarity.

We love to see it. Yes, please. Love of art.

(26:39 – 27:17)
Poovorin said, what’s funny is how many warrior cultures around the world wear a version of a dress or skirt, but some Americans get their knickers in a twist about it. I mean, I love a man in a kilt. Sexy.

I love a man in a dhoti. Fuck yeah. Hurry up.

Thank you, Miss Michelle. She popped a, into the chat room and there is a trailer for the documentary on YouTube. Fuck yeah.

So that, absolutely vital. So let’s skip ahead. Let’s go to modern times.

(27:17 – 27:31)
Nowadays. Back then it was LGB. And every now and then, even today, you still run into people who try to make it LGB without the T. And they try to cut trans people out of the LGB community.

(27:32 – 28:17)
Those people are what we like to call scum. No, wait. Nope.

Yeah. Scum. Scum works.

LGB without the T. Okay. It’s the same thing as radical feminists who say that they only support biological women. They’re called trans exclusionary radical feminists or TERFs or occasionally feminism appropriating radical transphobes.

Farts. Cause they stink. We do not like those.

(28:17 – 28:55)
We support all people who are femme and even butchers. Like, sure. Fuck it.

Everybody. We don’t support cis men. There.

How’s that? That’s pretty fucking inclusive. I mean, I also support cis men. Fuck.

Any group that immediately sets up to say, we support everybody except for those people. Yeah. You’re scum.

It’s just, they just, they just gross. We don’t like them. They icky.

(28:57 – 29:08)
Ew. Most of the anti-trans legislation that’s out there in the world today, come from TERFs. And they come from people who have made it okay to hate trans people.

(29:09 – 31:09)
The fact that Riley, what’s her face, Riley Gaines, decided to throw a massive hissy fit and cry and complain because, um, a trans woman competed in the same sport that she did. And she had to share an award with her. She came in fifth.

They tied for fifth place. Fifth. There were four people who were better.

And Riley Gaines goes, I had to share with a trans woman in my fifth place. And immediately raked in millions of dollars from conservatives who were like, oh, you poor thing. Let us give you money.

And also start passing laws to ban trans women from competing in sports over the place. What a fucking whiny crybaby. Bitch.

Riley said, how ironic that Nancy Mace came in fifth in her primary this year. It’s a theme. Addie says, I hate the IOC for their lack of a backbone and making a U-turn on trans and intersex people participation.

Yeah. Uh, the Olympics committee decided that it’s okay to test people’s hormones and their genetics in order to see, do you have too much testosterone? And I don’t know how to tell you guys, but I’ve had my hormones checked. My testosterone is very high.

It’s what gives me a high sex drive. It also means I have to shave my armpits a lot. I’m a hairy girl.

(31:12 – 34:03)
Yes, I go get waxed, but also I still have to shave. That’s very annoying. My testosterone is very high.

I wouldn’t be allowed to compete in the Olympics. Not that I’m good enough at anything to compete in the Olympics. I had brief aspirations in college of getting really, really good at like shooting a bow and being able to do like bow shooting.

But no, I’m not that good. It’s Michelle says, hell yes. I know that life is harder, right? The levels for what is considered too much testosterone is well within the normal range for women.

It’s at the upper end of the normal range for women, but it is not excessively high. The one that really gives me problems is the fact that my progesterone levels were too low. Thanks.

Fucking progesterone. It causes cramps if you don’t have enough of it. Love that for me.

So yeah, Addy says they already knew because they used to do this until they realized that the tests were shit. Yeah, they changed the policies. And then the world’s most famous TERF, JK Rowling, opened up her fat mouth because Castor Simalia won a medal at the Olympics.

And she looked at her and went, she looks like a man to me. Bitch, Castor Simalia has XX chromosomes and does have elevated testosterone, but it’s still within the normal range for a biological woman. She’s a biological woman.

She’s not a trans man. Fucking hell. Oh, anyways.

So let’s say you’re going to go to the pride parade. Everybody is welcome at pride, except cops. Different pride committees will make decisions about safety and security, and sometimes that can include hiring off-duty cops to act as security.

And sometimes the city or county or municipality in which the pride event is taking place has laws about, well, you have to have police there if there’s more than this many people. The trick is within the LGBTQIA2S community, cops are not our friends. Cops don’t actually make you more safe.

(34:04 – 34:49)
Even if the cop themself may happen to be gay, it doesn’t matter. Cops don’t make you safer. So I am anti-allowing cops to march in the pride parade.

I’m also against letting various corporations sponsor the pride parade. I don’t want to see pride as sponsored by Target. Those bitches decided to get rid of their DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives because it makes some people feel sad because they don’t like diversity or equity or inclusion.

(34:55 – 36:29)
Those fuckers. So when you go to pride, step number one, sunscreen. Put sunscreen on before you go and reapply your sunscreen for two hours or so.

If necessary, set a reminder on your phone so that you can go, oops, time to put more on unless you want to turn bright fucking red. And yes, even if you have dark skin, you can still get a sunburn and it still fucking hurts. You won’t turn red.

You’ll just hurt a bunch. You’ll be darker. That’s number one.

Number two, take water. Ooh, committing man says, what if the cop is gay and wants to be part of pride? Then he can take his uniform off and march. For an awful lot of people who are in the LGBTQIA plus community, seeing the uniform is traumatic because it may be the guy who tried to roust you last weekend for daring to wear a skirt.

Those fuckers. If a cop is gay and wants to go to pride, they can take the uniform off and they can march like all the rest of us. Sunscreen, water, maybe a hat.

It can be pretty. It can be a rainbow. It can be bright fucking pink.

(36:29 – 38:45)
You can put ruffles on it. Plenty of glitter. You can put sequins.

It’s fun. If you have a problem with noise, get some of those little noise canceling headphones or like the loop earplugs. Those work great to kind of turn the volume down of what’s happening.

Um, if it’s an outdoor event, you probably don’t need necessarily a mask unless you are immunocompromised, in which case, wear the fucking mask. Put some sequins on it. You’ll be fine.

Anybody messes with you, just be like, I am immunocompromised and I don’t want your cooties. For a community that faced down the 1980s and the AIDS crisis, and then later in the 2020s, uh, monkeypox, you would think being hyper aware of the ways that people in close proximity can make one another sick. One plus one equals two.

They might get it. If it’s an indoor event, please do wear a N95 or a KN95. Wear, wear a mask when you’re in public, especially around a big group like this, because somebody is stupid and has walked in there with the sniffles and you don’t want that.

Wear a mask. They should be wearing a mask too, and that way everybody’s safe. Fabulous.

Take some snacks. Road snacks at the Pride event are probably going to be very expensive and slightly overpriced. Bring your own.

A couple of packets of peanut butter crackers and maybe an apple or a banana if you really want to make a scene. Oh, Alex says, I just checked and my local Pride was yesterday. There will be other events.

Um, for example, there may be, uh, like a professional network. They might have a brunch. There’s all sorts of events that take place during Pride.

Uh, there may be a, um, uh, LGBTQIA plus book club at the local library where you get together and you read queer books. And if there’s not, you can start one. You can start something like that.

(38:46 – 38:59)
Like, absolutely. Yes. Do it.

And he says, Brazilia Pride is only in July because reasons. Everybody has their pride in a different time. It’s good.

(39:01 – 39:23)
Um, you may see some things at a Pride event that make you go, ah, my eyes. Most of the time, Pride events will tell you ahead of time if there’s a dress code that you should adhere to. They will try to tell you, yes, please do wear clothing, cover your genitals.

(39:24 – 42:09)
Because sometimes people who are involved in leather like to go to Pride events and sometimes people involved in the leather community seem to be allergic to clothes. This is because the leather community started in the gay community for a long, long time. Leather equals gay post World War I and post World War II.

A bunch of veterans come back to the United States and go, well, I got used to hanging out around men and it turns out, low jobs relieve a lot of stress. And now I’ve got a uniform kink. Whoopsie, what to do? Well, thus we have leather.

A whole bunch of people who really liked uniforms and the company of masculine men formed a little subculture. They would get together and wear leather uniforms and do the things that masculine men like to do. And sometimes Pride events, the leather d@ddies show up and leather bois.

That happens. As Michelle says, kink belongs at Pride. So I’m glad they gave us all a trigger warning so that negative Nellies stay away.

Right? So leather is very kinky. Corporal punishment is a big part of leather, which is why kink belongs at Pride. Kink is queer.

Kink and BDSM, all of this shit, this is all very, very queer. For example, the sheer volume of times that just because it is a man and a woman doing something. So like if you have a penis and you call me technically that’s straight, but we can do some queer shit.

I’m going to make you kneel and beg to suck my cock. Because that’s queer. That is.

That’s gay. Like that’s come on, man. That’s I can soften it when we’re in a session.

If you’re like, No, I’m not gay. You have a vagina. Like, yeah, technically, I do have a vagina.

You will never get to so much as sniff my vagina. But I will put on a strap on and fuck you in the ass. Because that’s kink is very queer.

It’s not penis and vagina vanilla sex. It is really fucking queer and very, very gay. And I love it.

(42:11 – 42:16)
A meeting man says leather can find junk gets hot. Uh huh. Yeah.

(42:19 – 43:58)
Yes, that’s the point. Absolutely. Uh huh.

Yes. That’s why you wear a leather thong, assless chaps and a leather harness around your pecs. It just goes together.

It’s perfect. And the leather cap with boots. Boot blacking.

Okay. So kink will show up at pride events. Some pride events will absolutely advertise themselves as family friendly.

You should keep most of the very overt parts of the raw sexuality of leather and kink. Not at a family friendly event. The other events, prepare yourself.

You’re gonna see some things. For one thing, it’s not just cute white twinks with a six pack abs in a perfectly tailored little rainbow outfit. Prancing around like teehee.

Because I love dick. Like that’s not the only thing you’re gonna see. You are gonna see bull dykes.

Dykes on bikes. Big part of pride. A butch bull dyke on a Harley.

(43:59 – 44:06)
Please do not call her a woman. Although I would pay you money to do that. You can say yes ma’am.

(44:06 – 44:36)
And she will think that you were the cutest thing she’s ever seen in her life and be like, oh aren’t you just precious. But uh don’t try to hold the door open for her. Or if you do, do it where I can watch.

Because I want to see. That’s gonna be good. Miss Michelle says I just love the butch femme fairies at my local pride.

Hell yes. Yes. And Alex said kink belongs at pride because it’s part of the protest.

(44:39 – 50:20)
Fuck yeah. And Giggle said some of us are heavier. You’re gonna see fat people.

You’re gonna see thin people. You’re gonna see hairy bodies. You’re gonna see women with armpit hair crawling out of their shirts.

Full bush. It’s escaping. That’s fine.

There will be lipstick lesbians. There will be butch femmes. There’s gonna be like the gamut.

The world is so much more interesting than whatever highly curated view of LGBT community you might have happened to see before. If your only exposure to the greater LGBT community was maybe through an HBO show. If you’re like, ooh the L word.

Uh-huh. Sure. No.

It’s messier than that. You’re going to see things. You’re going to experience things.

But it’s so good. Because here’s a whole bunch of people who are here in order to say we’re here. We’re queer.

Get over it. We exist and we deserve to exist. We have the right to be messy.

To be fat. To be hairy. To be gross.

To subvert every single part of whatever society says we’re supposed to be like. And to throw up a giant middle finger to that. Because you know what? No.

Society says that I’m supposed to be smooth and hairless and thin and sexy and pretty. Nah. Giggles about the door holding thing.

Is it holding the door open for like just everyone a normal thing? I hold the door for literally every single person I can. Is that not normal? Some hyper masculine men will take extreme exception to having someone hold the door for them. One time I held the door open for people.

I was like, yeah sure. Go on in. And this guy got offended that I held the door for him.

And followed me around a gas station like convenience store yelling at me about how I was a bitch. Because I held the door. So some extremely masculine coded butch bull dyke lesbians.

They don’t want you to hold the door open for them. Because most of the time when a man holds a door for a woman, especially if he wouldn’t hold the door for another man, it’s him saying I see you and I see that you are too weak to hold a door. So I’m going to do it for you because I’m so powerful.

So if you are a person who seems masculine and you hold the door open for a bull dyke, there’s some subtext that’s in that moment that the bull dyke definitely is aware of. And so you might get it in the teeth. She might say no I can hold my own door.

In which case you go oh of course I’m so sorry. Let go of the door and move. Giggles says why do people think so deeply about this? It’s just a goddamn door.

It’s because most of the time men who are holding that door open are putting that subcon that subtext into it. Like it’s yeah. Mott says I hold the door open for everyone because that’s a society I want to live in.

I hold the door open for everybody. And I get cussed at by men for holding the door open for them. Just trust me on this.

For those of you who are not raised and socialized female, just trust me. Take my word for it. A lot of men hold the door for women but not for men.

And those are the sorts of men who if you tried to hold the door for them, they think that you’re impugning their masculinity. So those dudes, I drop the door on them. Like oh I’m gonna shut it in their face because fuck that guy.

But um if you do that for like a bull dyke at a pride event, she’s going to say something to you about it. Because it’s a pride event. And she’s like you can look at a person and go oh okay.

She will be dressed extremely masculine. Like she will be flagging as mask as possible. M-A-S-C.

Mask. Because she’s wanting people to perceive her as more masculine. You may even run into a trans man.

So it’s a person who you look at them and you go well you have tits and your face looks like a woman and you seem like a girl but you’re dressed like a man. Like trans men and bull dyke lesbians. Like cross your fingers.

(50:20 – 51:51)
Okay. They’re close. Okay.

You cannot tell just by looking at somebody how they may define their own gender. But you can look at their gender expression and if you have a question about it, you can always just ask what are your pronouns? Oh okay. Thank you for telling me.

And then use whatever pronouns they said. Kylie says I hate to say it but I’m actually the opposite. I’m more likely to help a guy than a woman just because I’m less likely to have it taken the wrong way by a guy.

I’m trying to get over it. Yeah. It’s weird.

It’s weird and fucked up. I just hold the door for everybody and if they throw a fit about it, I just let it slam in their face. Because fuck that.

Jiggle’s like I’m gonna go google how not to appear like an asshole. Good luck. The rules are ever shifting.

So in the context of a pride parade, a person who seems masculine, actually if you do that for a person who’s like in the leather community and you hold the door for him, he’s probably going to be like good boi. And if you blush and giggle, then he knows you’re fresh meat. So don’t blush and giggle at a leather dom.

(51:54 – 52:35)
Unless you want that. In which case, go for it. Hey Damiana, you joined us tonight.

We’re talking about pride events. Alex said I wonder if it’s a cultural thing. I’ve never had anyone upset by me holding the door in the great white north.

Do you look like a pretty woman? Yeah, that’s why. Because I look like a pretty woman. If I hold the door for some macho dude, it hurts his feelings.

(52:36 – 52:45)
He gets really upset. I always kind of hope for tears. But so far I’ve just gotten called a bitch.

(52:46 – 53:28)
Oh poop on them. If you’re going to a pride event you’ve never been before and you’re nervous about it, that’s cool. Take a friend.

Go with a friend. You can always take a buddy. Allies are allowed at pride.

Even if they’re a straight cis person. Sure, fuck it. As long as they can manage to behave not like a dick.

Bigots are not welcome at pride. Alex baby, you don’t look like a pretty woman. So you don’t get the same pushback that a pretty woman does.

(53:29 – 53:46)
Alex said even mask men though. Uh-huh. Because you’re on their level.

Pretty girls aren’t supposed to hold the door. Because I might prick a nail. Gosh, thanks mister.

(53:50 – 54:51)
He giggles that I can’t fathom thinking so little of people. I know, right? It’s very obnoxious. It’s exhausting being a woman who looks like this in public.

There’s a reason why sometimes I cross dress. If I put my hair up and I put on, I’ve got a flat cap, like a cabby cap. Fucking love it.

It’s so cool. I love my hat. I also have a fedora and I used to wear that and then I found out about the milady people and so now I can’t wear my fedora anymore.

Fuckers. But no makeup, hair up, put on a big bulky like ugly menswear jacket and jeans, like baggy ones. Oh hell yeah.

Undercover bitches. Cuts down on the catcalls drastically. All right, so you can go to pride.

(54:54 – 58:20)
Uh-huh. Michelle said the difference between the way I’m treated on my femme days and my more inby mask. Oh, the chat moved.

Inby mask days is literally night and day for real. Sorry, I love that Addy. She’s fully, not fully related, but when I was little I didn’t know how to use handles so I broke a few fingers closing doors.

Yeah, that’s hilarious. Okay, so you will see things at pride events that you maybe have not seen before. Just don’t judge, don’t point, don’t stare, don’t be like, ew.

Like just leave it alone. You know, if that’s not what something you wanted to look at that particular day, just okay. Just look away.

Just walk. Leave it alone. That’s not for you.

Look over there. Yeah, just move on. Just nope.

Next. If you go to pride and you see people who seem like they are a heterosexual couple who are there, I guarantee that number one, you cannot clock a trans person just by looking. You’re not that good.

I’m not that good. Some people can absolutely pass. Good for them.

Love that for you. You will also see people who absolutely do not pass. Love that for them.

Good for them. Good. I want you to treat both of those the same.

When you see a seemingly cis het couple, that’s cool. Either they’re allies, and they’re here, and they’re with us. Good.

Or they have some version of queerness that you cannot see by looking at them. Maybe they’re both bisexual and just so happen to be in a heterosexual seeming relationship. Maybe they’re poly.

Maybe they’re best friends who came here to support one another. Maybe one of them is trans. Maybe both of them are trans.

You don’t fucking know. Leave it alone. Smile.

Nod. Woohoo. Pride.

And move on. Let it go. Michelle said be a casual chill observer at pride.

Not everything is meant for you, and that’s okay. Holy y’all. Kylie says, I hate the term allies.

I prefer accomplices. Alex says, I can’t imagine a world where I’d pass. Part of the reason I’ve been so reluctant to express myself.

You know what? Everybody starts off at oof, and then it’s all uphill from there. You get better, and better, and better. So express yourself.

Go for it. And a pride event? Oh, you will see people who do not pass. That’s okay.

(58:21 – 1:03:35)
If anywhere is safe, a pride event is safe. And if it ain’t safe, well, it can rapidly become a wrath event. Yeah.

Michelle says, definitely learn not to assume when you go to pride. Word. Word.

So while the A typically stands for asexual and aromantic, woohoo, it can also stand for allies. Just like the Q in LGBTQIA+, the Q can stand for queer or questioning. Both Q words.

The I stands for intersex. The plus indicates everybody else, because there are so many different words, sentences, and phrases that can indicate somebody who’s probably not cishet. Basically, pride is for everybody.

Just everybody. The LGBT acronym expands to make it more inclusive. Queer covers people who are non-binary.

T covers the entire trans community, which also covers non-binary folks. L, lesbian. G, gay.

B, bi or pan. T for trans. Q for queer or questioning.

I for intersex. A for asexual, aromantic, and allies. And then the plus, fucking everybody else.

All the other words and labels. And keep in mind that there are micro labels. Those exist.

Oh, Google said, wait, does that mean I don’t have to pass if I want to go to pride? I can wear my femme clothing with a full beard and not shaving at all, and that’s fine. Yep. Go for it.

Chicks can have beards. Fuck it. Hell yeah.

I, I remember my grandmother with tweezers plucking her chin hairs. So girls can have beards. Kylie says, don’t forget I and two-spirit.

Well, I is intersex. Two-spirit, sometimes people add the two S onto there. Sometimes they don’t.

Because not all of the North American Indigenous peoples use the term two-spirit. Like it’s not an umbrella term that covers literally everybody. It covers the Anishinaabe, I believe.

I could be wrong. But it doesn’t cover all of the First Nations or the tribal peoples of North America. So it’s an identity and it’s a relatively well known identity, but it’s not all of them.

If that makes sense. So some people put it in and some people leave it out. So if it is one that’s used in your area, then absolutely use it.

I’m down here in Texas. None of the Texas peoples down here use two-spirit. This is whore school.

Whore school is adult sex education. We are very queer. If you have the opportunity to attend a pride event, you should do so.

It, it, pride is for everybody. Just remember pride started in the aftermath of riots. Personal.

Wait, what’s that acronym again? I forgot again. I’m special. Personal Rights in Defense and Education.

There you go. We’ll get there. Keep in mind, I have a blog, whoreschool.net, where you can find out what the next episode is going to be.

You’ll also be able to find embedded audio players so you can listen to past episodes as well as transcripts for the most recent episodes. All right there. Just nice.

Just pretty. Thank you guys for listening. Thank you ladies for listening as well.

Happy Pride Month. Remember sunscreen, water, and a hat. Because nobody’s going to fall out at fucking pride.

Okay. Watching out for all y’all. Thank you all for listening.

Whore school will be back again next week. Until then, wear a mask. Celebrate pride.

Good night.

 

Find the Whore School Schedule right here, and remember to join the Whore School discord for more memes, connection, and all the resources used by Ms Harper for the show. Whore School is adult sex education with no fear, no guilt, and no shame!