Gays for Sale : Call for participation Queer Netherlands - 31.07.2008 10:25
Call for participation in the 'Gays for Sale' event on Aug 2nd from 12 noon till 1 pm at the Homomonument. Some of us will be symbolically selling ourselves to corporate companies to celebrate the commericalisation and depoliticisation of Gay Pride. Call for : Gays for Sale This year, August 2nd is the Canal Gay Pride in Amsterdam. Gay Pride, celebrated all over the world, is about affirming our identities as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, etc, openly and publicly. It is to remember how far we have come in our struggle for rights as well as our contribution to a radical reshaping of social, emotional and sexual mores. It is also increasingly about sharing this affirmation with our supportive friends and the public at large. And it is a damn good party. In more and more parts of the world, this is also about celebrating our pride in being taken seriously at last by corporate companies. We form the Pink Market now, and though we are a late entrant into the world of marketable communities, we make up for it in our enthusiasm. Our enthusiasm in selling ourselves to insurance companies and travel companies and housing and property developers and even marriage and greeting card companies. Canal pride has become the day where we traditionally let companies buy a place for their boat in the parade, let ourselves be sold as a target of mass and easy advertising and try and talk as little as possible about lgbt rights and struggles not just around the world but also in the Netherlands. We dont talk about discrimination in the workplace, violence against lgbt people, the various issues faced by transexuals, restrictive gay asylum laws in europe and its links with migration policy, moral policing against sex work and public sex, intolerance towards gender transgression in public, etc. To celebrate what we, and the Pride has transformed into, some of us will sell ourselves and the entire community to any company rich enough to buy us, on Aug 2nd in Amsterdam. This will predominantly be a 'Gays for Sale' event since lesbians and especially transgendered people do not earn enough yet to be attractive to buyers. So be there -- be sold or buy us ! August 2nd Saturday, 12 noon, at the HomoMonument ! If you would like to participate, please email us and let us know. You are also welcome to come and lend support or just watch ! QueerNL queernl@gmail.com E-Mail: queernl@gmail.com |