Gay Pride's Here! And I'm So Ashamed!   It's Gay Pride week, and
I'm so excited! I'm gearing up to once again be the only one I
know at the march this Sunday!  It's just not considered a cool
thing to do, since we don't seem to need the self-validation as
desperately as before, but also because these kinds of
ritualized group activities were never deemed fabulous to begin
with by jaded, been-there queers. My très-gay friends generally
feel it's a ghettoized event for the people who are only out and
proud one day a year, much like fashionistas tend to scorn
Halloween as hokey and die-hard drunks detest New Year's as a
piss-poor holiday for amateurs.  But though I'm not much of a
joiner myself, I still find it stimulating to see all the
fragments of the community in one open-air place, and in a
celebratory mode, with feathers and whistles on. I'll even be
judging a pet fashion contest that day, proving we've come so
far that even hairy creatures who sniff each other's butts are
gay nowadays. (And please don't s