colombo gets proud
Equal Ground, who organized that great women-only party Women on Top which was in march this year, at tabu, is taking it upon themselves to introduce colombo to full-blown gay pride. i was in london for gay pride last summer, and i don’t remember having that much fun or being around that many happy people. ever.
i was always skeptical about how pride would be received in colombo, where there is plenty of repressed anger and frustrated violence to go around, where you can’t even go to a regular party without getting into, being the cause of or witnessing a fight, leave alone a party full of gay people who have ‘let their hair down’. the few parties i have been to, that have been organized by equal ground or other related organizations have always been really fun, because the security is really tight and they are always very careful about who they allow in and who they don’t. i suppose this is why women on top was such an enormous success. there was no tension, there was no ‘who’s feeling me up?’ ‘which one of those jerks is going to follow me to the bathroom?’ type thing, which relaxed the atmosphere noticeably.
i really hope that colombo pride goes off like the organizers expect it to. equal ground is a noteworthy organization, and their efforts to create a safer place for everyone are definifely admirable. i think the biggest step forward would be the banishing of this social mind set that homosexuality, bi-sexuality and trans-sexuality are perversions, unnatural. rosanna flamer-caldera, from equal ground, told me many horrific stoies about how lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans sexual people, especially those from the rural areas, are treated with disgust, disowned by their families, forced into marriages and are faced with violence daily.
colombo pride is going to happen over a week beginning on the 21st of may, and the activities are going to include a film marathon, a kite festival and of course, the essence of pride celebrations : the party. the event sounds like it is most definitely going to be fun.
everyone is welcome to attend the pride celebrations, everyone, that is, who attends it in the right spirit : that of solidarity and, quite simply, pride.
Will there be gays at this party? If so I shan’t be attending for I….. am the only gay in the village
Comment by Gay Ray — April 20, 2006 @ 1:51 pm
GR: Was that a quote from Little Britian by any chance
Comment by null — April 20, 2006 @ 7:54 pm
Little Britain… sorry about typo…
Comment by null — April 20, 2006 @ 7:59 pm
well said… looking forward to it…
Comment by Rudster — April 21, 2006 @ 1:00 am
i hope this is not limited to so called colombo elite because that would not be sri lanka or even colombo.
anyway
here here the link to sri lankan gay friends
http://www.geocities.com/srilankangay/index.html
and here are three accounts of colombo pride 2005
www.utopia-asia.com/spec/sripride.htm
www.equal-ground.org/archives/2005/08/a_review_of_col.php#more
www.equal-ground.org/archives/2005/07/_equal_ground_c.php#more
Comment by sittingnut — April 21, 2006 @ 10:56 am
Will there be women-beating competitions at this event?
I was promised women-beating competitions at the last event at Zanziba, but was disappointed to learn that I had been misinformed. Turned out it was for a battered women’s shelter - good cause and all - but, not AS much fun really.
Are non-les-bi-gay people welcome at this event? In which case, I’ll probably come, but please let me know if they are not having women-beating competitions, so I can leave my wife-beaters at home, and not look like a complete idiot.
Comment by Tung Ing Chik — April 21, 2006 @ 12:28 pm
sittingnut : most certainly not. this is going to be big, and that whole point is in hope that everyone will attend it.
tung ing chik : heterosexuals make up most of the thousands at Pride festivals everywhere in the world, so why not here? of course us straight ones are welcome too.
as for women-beating competitions, i rather think not. sorry.
Comment by electra — April 22, 2006 @ 3:30 am