Pity
the poor journalist who gets
assigned to cover a gay pride
parade. Focus too much on the
topless lesbians and drag queens, and you’re bound to
get flak from activists who demand
less
sensational coverage, and rightly
so: The
LGBT community is more diverse
than
the coverage often suggests. But
you’ll
risk boring your readers to tears
if you
profile yet another selfless mother
from
PFLAG.
What
to do? Find a new angle. Gay
pride parades happen every
year, but the
world that the participants inhabit
is
always changing. Look closer
and you
may find a story that hasn’t been told a
thousand times before.
Here
are some ideas to pitch to your
bosses or suggest to your staffers:
Compare & Contrast
Is your local pride
parade still growing, or has
its size leveled off in recent
years? Is the
LGBT community still enthusiastic
about the event?
“I
hear some people say they’re
burned out on Pride,” said David Poller,
metro photo editor at the San Diego
Union-Tribune. “A big parade full of
floats sprinkled with go-go boys,
all the
bars and restaurants are
crowded, it’s the
same old festival…They’re over it. Are
people in your community
over Pride?”
Give
a History Lesson
When was
the first gay pride parade
in your community,
and who were the organizers?
Are any of them still
around to talk
about the challenges
they faced in the
old days? If you work
for a gay or alternative
newspaper, raid the morgue
(or
contact longtime local
activists) and create
a photo spread of the
various pride
fashions over the past
20 or 25 years.
Follow
the Money
Who pays to
support gay pride events
in your city? Researchers
recently confirmed that lesbians
smoke and drink more
than heterosexual
women. Are any activists
concerned
about alcohol and cigarette
companies
and their role as sponsors
of your
local parade and festival?
Follow
the Germs
How do gay
pride events affect
the health of local
residents?
Have health officials
ever noticed
an increase in sexually
transmitted diseases
after pride week?
(Maybe they
haven’t bothered to look.) Get your
hands on month-by-month
STD statistics
in your community
and check if
there ’s a story worth pursuing.
Track
the Trans People & Bisexuals
Is their profile
growing in your
community? If so, how is their
newfound
influence reflected
in the parade?
Pride
week may be a perfect
time to educate
readers (or viewers
or listeners)
about
the struggles that
trans people
and bisexuals
face as they reach
for acceptance
in
the gay community.
In
many cases, parade organizers
forget about
the transgender
community,
said Becky Juno,
a columnist
for Transgender Forum. “We’re always
an afterthought,” she said. “Nobody
ever focuses on us.
Sometimes it’s ignorance,
sometimes it’s willful. They don’t
make
an effort to
make us feel included.”
Check
the No-Shows
Most radio
stations love
publicity
so much they’ll
send a promotional
van to the
opening
of an envelope.
But many
don’t dare be
seen anywhere
near a gay
pride parade.
Check the participant
list to see
which
radio stations
will be in
the parade,
and
ask tough questions
of those
that pass on
a chance to
reach thousands of
listeners.
Forget
the Parade
In
many communities,
pride week
means much
more
than a march
in downtown
or the
gay
neighborhood.
Perhaps
your newspaper
or TV station
could devote
its pride
coverage — if
just for one year — to
other
events such as picnics, fund-raisers
and
rallies.
Coverage
doesn’t have to be limited
to June,
either;
there’s plenty of gay
community
news year-round.
“I
would like to see straight media
cover more of the different events
that
may reflect
a bit
more diversity
in the
gay
community,” said Susan Jordan, editor
of
The Empty
Closet,
a gay
newspaper in Rochester,
N.Y.
Don’t
Neglect the Spectacle
Some
photojournalists
may
feel like
ignoring
the femme
boys,
the
butch girls and all
those
drag
queens
on Rollerblades. That’s
just
as
wrong as making them
the
entire focus
of coverage.
“Photos
that only show stereotypical
images of gays and lesbians without
reflecting the diversity of our
community
have
rightly
caused
anger for
many
years,” Poller said. “But
at
the same time, it’s good to remember
what the day is
about,
what
the
event
feels like. Pride is
loud
and
boisterous
and fun, and
the
published
photos
should
reflect
that.”
