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Anti-female-breast policy in leather contingent?
Did leather contingent censor female breasts in SF Pride Parade? Is skin less welcome in Sunday mornng parade than at afternoon festival?
To the San Francisco Bay TIMES:
Photos of the 2004 SF Pride Parade's leather contingent, taken by The Mahtin, can be seen at IndyBay.org
[ http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/06/1687166.php ]
Unlike play parties, these photos don't seem to include any bare female breasts.
Were there ANY topfree women in the 2004 leather contingent?
In the early and mid Nineties, I think bare-breasted women were often seen in the leather contingent at SF Pride parades.
Later in the 90s, SF leather organizations were secretly given a hint that Pride and the SF Police Department would be happier if no bare female breasts appeared. So the leather contingent, bottoming to prudery, began self-censorship of skin.
Admittedly, SF Pride never OPENLY banned breasts; but in the late 90s the Dyke March pointedly distinguished itself from Pride by proclaiming "We have no titty policy"; a statement heard at DM as recently as 2004.
By 2003, or perhaps earlier, topfree women were common at the Pride Festival; and a few nude men were also seen there. In 2003 and 2004, the Pride committee clearly didn't object; so now the SFPD ignores nudes and topfree women at the Sunday afternoon festival. Such ignoring merely indicates tolerance, not approval.
Yet in the 2003 parade, a woman breast-cancer survivor/activist reportedly was pressured to cover her chest, by leather contingent leaders who claimed her single bare breast would cause TV cameras to avoid televising the contingent. She documented this censorship in SF Bay Times.
In June 2004, did the leather contingent continue to ban the female breast?
Also, is skin less welcome in the morning parade than in the afternoon festival? If so, is this because of television coverage?
I challenge leather contingent members and leaders to reply in the LGBTI/queer section of IndyBay.org and in SF Bay Times. Also I invite comments, including herstorical corrections, from all SF area queers, especially Dyke March and Pride participants.
Tortuga Bi LIBERTY
for Senior Unlimited Nudes
http://pages.prodigy.net/seniornude
1 July 2004
Photos of the 2004 SF Pride Parade's leather contingent, taken by The Mahtin, can be seen at IndyBay.org
[ http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/06/1687166.php ]
Unlike play parties, these photos don't seem to include any bare female breasts.
Were there ANY topfree women in the 2004 leather contingent?
In the early and mid Nineties, I think bare-breasted women were often seen in the leather contingent at SF Pride parades.
Later in the 90s, SF leather organizations were secretly given a hint that Pride and the SF Police Department would be happier if no bare female breasts appeared. So the leather contingent, bottoming to prudery, began self-censorship of skin.
Admittedly, SF Pride never OPENLY banned breasts; but in the late 90s the Dyke March pointedly distinguished itself from Pride by proclaiming "We have no titty policy"; a statement heard at DM as recently as 2004.
By 2003, or perhaps earlier, topfree women were common at the Pride Festival; and a few nude men were also seen there. In 2003 and 2004, the Pride committee clearly didn't object; so now the SFPD ignores nudes and topfree women at the Sunday afternoon festival. Such ignoring merely indicates tolerance, not approval.
Yet in the 2003 parade, a woman breast-cancer survivor/activist reportedly was pressured to cover her chest, by leather contingent leaders who claimed her single bare breast would cause TV cameras to avoid televising the contingent. She documented this censorship in SF Bay Times.
In June 2004, did the leather contingent continue to ban the female breast?
Also, is skin less welcome in the morning parade than in the afternoon festival? If so, is this because of television coverage?
I challenge leather contingent members and leaders to reply in the LGBTI/queer section of IndyBay.org and in SF Bay Times. Also I invite comments, including herstorical corrections, from all SF area queers, especially Dyke March and Pride participants.
Tortuga Bi LIBERTY
for Senior Unlimited Nudes
http://pages.prodigy.net/seniornude
1 July 2004
For more information:
http://pages.prodigy.net/seniornude
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San Francisco Bay Times published the letter above, on alleged anti-female discrimination in the leather contingent, in its July 8 issue.
And as of 26 July 2004, has even one member of the leather contingent been brave enough to PUBLICLY speak up?
If anything has been published in any forum, online or in real life,
please repost it here on IndyBay in the lgbti/queer section.
SF leatherfolk speak boldly in secret lists, for members only;
but many are in the closet,
and say nothing in public.
Okay.
Let them use a pseudonym at IndyBay.
If they think their policy at the Pride parade is defensible,
then let them defend it --- now.
-- Tortuga Bi Liberty,
for Senior Unlimited Nudes
26 July 2004
And as of 26 July 2004, has even one member of the leather contingent been brave enough to PUBLICLY speak up?
If anything has been published in any forum, online or in real life,
please repost it here on IndyBay in the lgbti/queer section.
SF leatherfolk speak boldly in secret lists, for members only;
but many are in the closet,
and say nothing in public.
Okay.
Let them use a pseudonym at IndyBay.
If they think their policy at the Pride parade is defensible,
then let them defend it --- now.
-- Tortuga Bi Liberty,
for Senior Unlimited Nudes
26 July 2004
Recently I asked whether the SF Pride leather contingent is still censoring the chests of female participants (SF Bay Times, 8 July 2004)
According to "minimo", editor of the Janus newsletter: "Officially, bare breasts were allowed this year...... It does keep the leather contingent from being on TV."
I congratulate the leather contingent for restoring gender equality; and I retract my previous bitter denunciations.
Tortuga Bi LIBERTY,
San Francisco, CA
It would appear that you have your reply:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/07/1690223_comment.php#1690788
If you had concerns about the SF Leather Pride Contingent, you might...oh, I don't know...maybe contact the organization directly instead of barking into the void? Maybe the reason no one replied to a letter to the editor in the Bay Times is ...oh, I don't know...maybe only you and four other people read the Bay Times? And then only to see their letter to the editor printed?
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/07/1690223_comment.php#1690788
If you had concerns about the SF Leather Pride Contingent, you might...oh, I don't know...maybe contact the organization directly instead of barking into the void? Maybe the reason no one replied to a letter to the editor in the Bay Times is ...oh, I don't know...maybe only you and four other people read the Bay Times? And then only to see their letter to the editor printed?
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