Pride is a Sham(e)!

The reasons are fourfold:

i. Proclamations of pride are compensatory, acknowledgements not only that the larger community regards one’s behavior as shameful, but tacitly that one does as well. Attitudes toward behavior one regards as entirely normative are ambivalent (imagine the absurdity of a heterosexual pride day). Pride and shame exist along one axis, together forming dipoles of the same entity: narcissism. Outwardly projected self-love masks inwardly projected self-loathing. Vocalized pride is pride in sham clothing and receives its identity only from shame.

ii. Gay/straight distinctions now have little or nothing to do with sexual behavior per se. The term "gay" has detached from the referent from which it was formed (a euphemism for people who engage in homosexual acts) and now floats aimlessly through linguistic never-never land. It is not uncommon to hear talk of gay straight guys, straight gay guys, and gay porn stars secretly being "straight" – engaging in homosexual acts is not sufficient, in fact not even necessary, to warrant identification as "gay."

Whether or not any of the following people engage in homosexual acts, I do not know – they are gay, nevertheless:

Richard Simmons

The Smiths
Most male eurotrash

Inanimate Objects, Professions, and Places (which of course, cannot engage in homosexual acts) can indeed be gay as well:

Hermès Gardening Spades
Calvin Klein & 2(x)ist Undergarments
Colors named after the natural objects they resemble: i.e. salmon, camel, …
Interior Decoration
Landscape Architecture
Professional Football
Construction
Law Enforcement
Firefighting
Floristry
Fashion Design
Coiffeury
Versailles
Paris
Milan

To be gay is to embrace a sort of neo-dandyism or to react violently against that (neo-machismo – butch gays are the gayest after all), nothing more, nothing less.

iii. To define is to limit. A homosexual who identiefies as "gay" relegates himself to a series of convenient definitions… a certain socioeconomic status… a certain set of life chances. To do so with pride is to accept one’s rape and then smile and thank the heteronormative power structure responsible.

iv. A “gay” identity undermines a homosexual’s sex chances. The vast majority of homosexuals are only attracted to “straight-acting" homosexuals.