BY Lux Alptraum
June 20, 2007
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As you’re probably aware, June is Gay Pride Month. To show our gay pride, we’re having Gay Week over at Boinkology: from Monday to Friday, it’s all gay posts, all the gay time.

Given all the attention garnered by gay pride, it seems only fair to devote at least one post to the topic of Gay Shame (which, no, isn’t a euphemism for staying closeted and quiet — quite the opposite, actually).

Go to any Gay Pride parade (well, any Gay Pride parade in a major city, at least), and you’re guaranteed to see a huge corporate presence (seriously: just look at the list of sponsors for SF Pride). There are a couple ways to view this: if you’re like many people, you’ll see it as a positive. Isn’t it great that corporations are gay friendly and support pride?

On the other hand, if you’re like Mattilda aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore, you might see it as a sign of gay culture being coopted by corporate culture — of a formerly radical identity being mainstreamed and used to further the moneymaking goals of a group of large corporations that care less about radical politics than about their own bottom line.

Or, to quote the Gay Shame website:

Gay Shame is a Virus in the System. We are committed to a queer extravaganza that brings direct action to astounding levels of theatricality. We will not be satisfied with a commercialized gay identity that denies the intrinsic links between queer struggle and challenging power. We seek nothing less than a new queer activism that foregrounds race, class, gender, and sexuality, to counter the self-serving “values” of gay consumerism and the increasingly hypocritical left. We are dedicated to fighting the rabid assimilationist monster with a devastating mobilization of queer brilliance. GAY SHAME is a celebration of resistance: all are welcome.