Pride meeting, annoying people, and victims

I met Megan at the Salt Lake City Library to inspect the site for Pride. Since last year the volunteer area wasn't optimal, I want to make sure this year is much better. I hope Jere signs off to my request.

Megan and I met with Jere from 5:30pm-6:30 and then we had our regular pride meeting. I like to think of myself as a person who gets along with everyone, but there is one person on the pride committee that drives me nuts. She always has an opinion, is loud, and tries to make a funny comment all the time.

During one part of the meeting, Jere was explaining something to the group that he had already explained to Megan and I. Because of this, Megan and I were quietly discussing other aspects of Pride while Jere talked. The woman whom I'm writing about looked at us and told us that we were being a distraction and she couldn't hear Jere. I politely replied, "Maybe you should stop listening to your ipod." Up to this point, the woman was listening to her ipod! Besides being disrespectful to the attendees of the meeting, keeping your ipod headphones on during a meeting is dumb.

At another point in the meeting, Jere was discussing the importance of the parade route. Everyone kept talking about how important this exact parade route was, so I asked Jere why it was so important. Jere gave me some answers that made little sense until he found one that logistically justified the parade route.

After I asked my question, this woman looked at me incredulously. The she started her victim's diatribe, "We're not going to move our parade to some small, out of the way street", "We're not second-class citizens who have to move the 2nd largest parade in the state", "This parade route is historic! We used to walk from the state Capitol." Basically, her reasons were that the gay pride parade needs to be visible and if it were moved, everyone would feel inferior.

I had to roll my eyes at the continued victimization that gays hold onto. We'd be second class citizens if the parade was moved to 5th south? C'mon!

Jere also gave me another reason that the parade route has to stay the way it is: it comes close enough to Mormon church headquarters without actually marching in front of the Mormon temple. Basically, gay people who once were Mormon feel better about having a gay pride parade near their old church because, basically, it's thumbing their nose at their them.

Megan and I came up with a button some people should wear: I'm gay and I'm a victim.