Violence label pains piercersParade denial one thing, stereotypes quite another
Friday, June 17, 2005
By ATHIMA CHANSANCHAI SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Click here to read the originial article
This is a tale of two parades and a group of pierced performance artists who thought they'd found the perfect home in one, but were told they'd be better suited to the other.
It's also a tale of perceptions, or misperceptions, and stereotypes.
Okrent said he supported the group for a lot of reasons. "I thought they were making viable art -- something very beautiful and very powerful and, in theory, the Arts Council comes together to celebrate and get people talking about creativity. We're not in the habit of passing judgment on the art other people create. To me, there was no reason to shut them out."
In meetings with PURE, Arts Council board members discussed how the Pride Parade might be a better home for the group.
"It was not said in the sense of marginalizing people any further," Okrent said. "People identified what PURE was doing with a sexual kink, with a sexual practice, some kind of a pleasure thing, a flesh game they associated with the outward sexuality of the Gay Pride parade. ... It wasn't meant derogatorily to PURE or Gay Pride."
Seattle City Councilman Tom Rasmussen, who is gay, said, "One thing I think is pretty clear, every parade group has a right to decide who to allow or not allow in its parade. This is a public street and there should be some standards of restraint and decency that would apply. But I don't think piercings or tattoos are any more unique to the gay community than any other community. Everyone has different ideas of what constitutes gay behavior or fashion and it's as individual as any other community. People ought to stop stereotyping."
Organizers of the annual Pride Parade, which occurs a week after the Solstice Parade, said they'd welcome the group with open arms. But they think there might be a misperception of what their parade is about.
"I'd almost take it personally as more of a compliment that we're open and accepting to people as individuals, rather than being close-minded and snooty because of how somebody looks," said Tammy Zoch, vice president of the Pride Committee. "Everyone can be themselves and feel OK about it and feel they're empowered to be who they are and honest with the world and that they're not marginalized for that. That's what the celebration of pride is about. It's not a big walking orgy down the street."
Neither is the Solstice Parade, but with a reputation for nude bicyclists and giant inflatable penises, it isn't exactly a Main Street USA event.
Because PURE had already participated without incident -- and only one official complaint -- in last year's Solstice Parade, group members thought they'd finally found an accepting public platform.
"I was not under the impression that this was a kiddie parade," said Daif Hahn, one of the founders of PURE. "The whole thing is pretty much about button-pushing. Nudity is completely illegal, yet they're allowed to do it. These are not things you'd see at a normal-type parade."
PURE, which doesn't plan to march in the Seattle Pride Parade, will march tomorrow respectfully in protest -- sans suspensions -- with the blessing of the same people who voted to keep them out.
"We like the people from PURE. And we don't want to be the Wallingford kiddie parade, but at the same time this is during daylight with kids in strollers. These are kids that get scared by a comedic mask," said Sonia Telesco, one of the Arts Council board members who voted to deny PURE admission to this year's parade. "We have to be considerate of our audience. Everyone has a different viewpoint, but the graphic quality of the hanging and the pulling of the flesh was something that made people feel it was inappropriate for an all-ages venue."
Calling the giant inflatable penis more of a "Simpsons"-like parody, she said the real issue that ignited discussions about PURE was the graphic imagery the group presented to a crowd that would not have a choice about seeing it.
"I think it takes a while for people to get used to new things, especially radical new things. ... I don't know if there's an appropriate public venue for it," Telesco said.
PURE will try again next year to be a part of the Solstice Parade, but this experience has left its mark.
"I honestly feel like Marilyn Manson in the Bible Belt," Hahn said.
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