Another redoubt of gay culture surrenders to the straights. Dan:
I'm often askedconfrontedabout gay pride parades when I speak at colleges and universities. Usually it's a conservative student, typically someone who isn't happy about my being invited to campus in the first place. We gay people like to pretend that we're all about love and marriage, the conservative student will insist, but look at your pride parades! Look at those guys in assless chaps and all those bare-chested lesbians dancing! Just look! The exchange almost always ends with this:
Conservative student: "Straight people don't flaunt our sexuality like that. We don't have straight 'pride' parades."
Me: "You should."
And it seems clearer with every passing Halloween that straight people do.