Pride

[djm4_lj]

As I threatened when I had a hissy fit and flounced out of running the bi presence at Pride last year, this year I volunteered as a yellowshirt to steward at Pride. It was a largely positive experience; I was assigned to the E and F float area, and spent the morning directing floats to the right place and running through safety checks and advice for wheel stewards, and the afternoon walking with a group of floats in the parade. Most of the time, I was walking with Studio La Danza's float - they had a float dressed in red and gold chiffon, with group of thirty or so dancers doing choreographed routines behind it. They played Scissor Sisters (twice), It's Raining Men and YMCA, so as you can imagine I was very happy.

(I grabbed some footage here, but it's not all that good, and I had to start stewarding again in the middle of the chorus. Still, it hopefully gives an impression of why I had such a good time.)

Obviously, the problem with being a steward is that sometimes you need to move people who don't want to be moved (or in the case of at least one of the marching groups, stop them from running into the path of the floats just because they've decided they need to be somewhere else in a hurry). Obviously, this casts me in the role of The Man, and since a lot of the marchers have a general dislike of London Pride as an organisation (often, I realise, with very good reasons), me as the face of that organisation got told where to stick my attitude on several occasions.

It's in the nature of the thing that I got no credit at all for the number of times I thought 'well, strictly speaking, you shouldn't be there, but you're not in anyone's way and you're not going to get run over', because that's not what people notice. They notice when you're trying to move them because they've been standing for five seconds looking through a camera and taking photos in the direct path of the float which is now a mere ten feet away. I do not exaggerate. I got sworn at for ruining a photo for that one; fair enough, I probably did, and I expect he would have moved out of the way in time, but if too many people get away with doing it, someone's going to try who doesn't have the requisite reflexes. And it's stressful for the float drivers.

Top marks go to the chap at the end of the parade, who was standing on a narrow pavement in the dispersal area in just the spot that everyone was trying to walk past. When I asked him to move on, he enquired in a hurt tone where he was supposed to stand to take photos. Well, how about somewhere on the couple of miles the parade's just walked down, like everybody else? His companion (I'm guessing boyfriend, but I don't actually know) then pointed out that I had tits, suggested I buy a bra as I was clearly a woman, and flounced off with him looking very pleased with his repartee. (I should point out here that I know not all gay men are misogynistic body fascists, but he fit the stereotype perfectly, sadly.)

I was also exhausted by the end of it, with a very stiff and aching back. Starting at 8am probably didn't help.

Nonetheless, most of the job was great fun, my fellow stewards were lovely, and I'm intending to do it all again next year. (Sadly, I didn't improve the stats for 'bi people volunteering for Pride', as I had a moment of honesty and admitted to being straight on the form; however, I did mention the bi activism I'd done/was doing whenever anyone asked, so I suspect I did something for visibility.)

Comments

[barakta]

This is really interesting to read, cos often the stewards of events and organisers get so little recognition. While Derby goes Pink failed on B and I think T recognition from the stage (lots of "Lesbians say hi" "Gay boys say hi") there was a speaker nearish the end who asked the crowd to give a round of applause for the organisers and the stewards. The stewards were v friendly and the police+security did a really good job, we were on the edge and only saw once incident which was a very angry man + female companion yelling at the police/security but it was handed very professionally. The police who were lurking at our end were very cheerful and friendly too.

I managed to see your tweet while at Derby and passed it on verbally to skibbley, oilrig and sanjibabes and they all thought that sounded wonderful.

I am sorry you got abuse from people for you doing your job, and i hope you know it probably wasn't personal and it is appreciated that people like you do volunteer as stewards.

I think being honest about being straight is good, all the more recognition for allies who support all sorts of communities. I had lots of conversations with folk in Derby about allies and how much I (and I hope we as a community) value you (and other allies). I also think it's useful to show that allies can do activism too and make people think about that. There may be people who are bi but invisibilised because they think if they had a straight partner that their partner would be excluded. As a straight ally doing bi activism that kinda shows that there are some spaces where a straight partner of a queer person would be welcomed.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I think that it's really really wonderful that you do what you do. Tits and all. ;-D

[skibbley.livejournal.com]

Well done! It was a huge event and from what I hear passed off with few problems and you helped to make that happen.

[sanjibabes.livejournal.com]

I think it is important to ensure that Pride events are not just supported by self-identified LGBT people. One of the reasons for Prides is to let people know that they don't have to be ashamed of their sexuality. Being heterosexual, being bisexual, being homosexual...it shouldn't matter.

I did wonder if I would get hassle for wandering around holding Oilrig's hand at Derby Goes Pink but in the end decided that it didn't matter.

Sorry to hear you got hassle. :( Glad you did a good job. You'd have been complained about more if someone had been injured. :-/

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, being a Figure of Authority means having to take stupid rude behaviour from arsey members of the public sometimes! *sigh* Sounds like you did alright though. Good on you for putting the effort in.

FWIW, I would never describe your resignation from doing the bi stuff as "a hissy fit"; I thought it was both entirely justified and more than polite enough.