As a result of last minute change of plans, I was able to attend Sunday's Pride is a Protest and Queer Cafe meeting. Finishing the minutes is next on my todo list but I wanted to offer some personal comments first.
First up - there is stuff going on outside of Pride, but mainly in response to Pride. I said fairly early on that I would like to see regular things going on throughout the year, and Alan informed us a bit about the Reclaim the Scene campaign he's involved with which seems to have a similar aim of year round events. They seem to be doing some sort of event around Pride but would probably be separate to anything done by Pride is a Protest.
Tara led a discussion on creating an alternative Pride model so we could have something positive to show rather than just attacking the current model. Mostly this turned into a discussion of what we wanted out of Pride. Given the large number of young people there (I think there was only one person older than me at that point - and even then not by much) there was a lot of focus on that, but the message coming through was that big names on stage are not what they particularly want - especially if that means large ticket prices they can't afford. Artists should be there primarily to support Pride, not to get paid. The overall feeling was that a community event was wanted.
Speaking of the young people there, they provided some laughs. A young lad needed to ask who Stonewall were... a group of Queer activists many with axes to grind is perhaps not the best place to get information about them 8-/. He got a wonderful baptism of fire into politics though and I hope he takes it on board and keeps going with it. Maybe one day he will "make a brilliant Prime Minister".
Alex
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