HAPPY GAY PRIDE 2009!!!

Posing with a rescued hog at SF Gay Pride

Hegui and I just returned from the SF Gay Pride Festival in the Civic Center area of the City. I know, I know, it happens on Sunday normally but this year Kevie hosted his Pride brunch on Saturday. Tomorrow will be the parade down Market Street and more time at the festival grounds at the Civic Center. I think that this final brunch was also for soon-to-be former roomie, Darren, who leaves the nest for back East in the morning. Good luck in Lebanon, D! As usual, we mixed up the date of the event so thought that we had a day more to get ready for the party. Au contraire! Fortunately, Kristen rang us and we managed to make it, though we weren’t that hungry after having breakie at home (sorry for the mix up Kev!) and we weren’t really feeling like drinking after all of the wine with Deby over the past few days. Oh well, somehow we managed. I did enjoy the company, and the pomegranate or whatever mojito was divine. Plus it was marvelous talking to Gabriel from Kevie’s job, who is also allergic to pineapple! It’s rare to meet fellow sufferers.

The festivities at the K’s place were really just a prelude to PRIDE. Normally I don’t think of gay pride festivals as food-related. They’re more about drinking and sex as far as I can tell. I didn’t see the porn stars this year but there were the token topless women, cute young guys in ridiculously revealing outfits, occasional leather daddies, etc. Mostly the SF Pride Festival seems to operate on company sponsorship. We saw a large booth from Comcast, one from a New Zealand airline, various GLBTQ magazines and that kind of thing. Even the SF Police had a spot. Smirnoff had several kiosks selling watered down vodka themed drinks. One of these was run by some friends-of-Kevin (I know, it sounds like code!) That worked out well because of the drink discount that was offered. Otherwise $11 for a large cup of cranberry juice just seems absurd.

random nudity at Pride

In the food area there were many of the typical offerings that one finds at such events: roasted meats of various kinds, falafel, salty snacks and so on. We were drawn to the two vegetarian booths. Instead of selling food, these were promoting the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle more or less. I talked to one of the guys at the San Francisco Vegetarian Society first. He was really quite nice. The group was founded 41 years ago! It sounds like though there is some politics, that they mostly offer cooking and eating seminars and spread awareness. This sweet man told me that the other group was more “political.” Though I wonder if that is supposed to be good or bad?

The other group, the Bay Area Vegetarians, was also quite nice. They even had someone dressed as a pig I imagine to draw you in and also to discourage you from chomping down on pork. These guys admitted to having some involvement with PETA though they think that they’re about as political as SFVS. I don’t know. I did notice that this second group had more stuff about veganism. One of them asked me if I was vegetarian. I told him “no” but added that I’ve been pescetarian for about three years now. He then made some comment about “harm reduction,” though I believe that he was referring to eating fewer eggs rather than cutting down on crack or heroin. Are they saying that embracing a vegan or vegetarian diet is like getting into recovery? That’s so Cullen-Twilight-style!

Bay Area Veggies

Actually their pamphlet entitled “But you eat Fish don’t you?” is what gave me the idea for this rant. This brochure is sort of scary, talking about the toxins that fish esp. large predators like tuna and swordfish ingest, the appalling conditions of fish farms and theories about fish personalities and their sensations of pain. My problem with this is what is the point of this kind of ad?

Are these groups there to promote health? If so, why vegetarianism or veganism rather than pescetarianism, or perhaps just cutting down on dairy and meat of all kinds? Americans are overweight in general is what I’m constantly hearing in the news. Why not promote eating less of everything and more exercise?

meeting the San Francisco Vegetarian Society

If they are promoting animal rights, then why not be less misleading and more direct? Politics is not a four-letter word, after all. There are a lot of animals that have their “animal rights” infringed upon other than those used in food production. Look at zoo animals for instance or dogs used by the military and police forces. What about the fur and leather industries? But I always feel that these more political vegetarians and vegans ignore the full consequences of their politics. When’s the last time you’ve seen protests for the everyday spider or cockroach or bedbug, for example? You can’t tell me that these political veggie folks happily live alongside their vermin brothers and sisters!

Really, aren’t the health and political arguments for vegetarianism and veganism two sides of the same coin? The first argues that if you don’t eat the “right way” that you’ll become prematurely ill and likely die; the second, that if you eat these animal-based foods than you’ll destroy the environment which will undoubtedly affect your health and life. Either way it’s the paranoid, reductionistic kind of thinking that Eve Sedgwick abhors. Can’t we queer the rhetoric and look at food from new vantage points?

rainbow flags at SF Pride

Instead of focusing on high cholesterol or the wellbeing of dairy cows, why not talk about the positive side of making food choices? People eat for lots of reasons beyond health and political conviction. In fact, if I had to guess, I’d say that both of these reasons take a backseat to tradition, convenience, to show off, for novelty, poverty, regional options, menu choices and a myriad of others. Why not promote food choices and education looking more into these areas?

Of course good health and the plight of other beings that we may be harming is very important, too. It makes sense to strive for healthy choices about food, drink and exercise. It also makes sense to be concerned for nature, including the animals used in food production. But to succeed, vegetarians and vegans as well as pescetarians and others need to promote food as something good in itself that meets peoples’ unique goals rather than something to fear. Vegan foods can be simply delicious! In the old days, I’ve eaten some pretty fabo bacon cheeseburgers too. And I don’t care what I learn about albacore tuna, I’m still going to Sanraku every chance that I get.

Can’t we agree to disagree about politics and food choices without giving up the idea that we need to make and question our choices to find solutions that work for us as individuals? I don’t want to be made to feel guilty about eating shellfish or wearing that leather jacket that I bought in Buenos Aires. I don’t want to make others feel guilty about their food choices either. That’s the whole point of weirdcombinations: less judging and more questioning to find what’s right for you as an individual eater, drinker and live-er.

showing party pride at Kevie's

I saw a car parked on the other side of the San Francisco Civic Center that I took a pic of on the way out of the festival. This weekend San Francisco celebrates gay pride. Yet this car had a “vote YES on Prop. 8” bumper sticker. Wow! I’m glad that that person feels comfortable expressing his/her opinion. Really I think that s/he’s very brave to leave an anti-gay message on a car right nearby the biggest gay pride festival on the West Coast. But what’s gay marriage to you, car owner person, anyway? So much judging! We need more living well, loving each other and accepting that we have differences. Then we’ll all have the necessary mental and emotional space and support to decide wisely for ourselves.

representing minority politics at SF Gay Pride