Drenalin; they say it takes a whole village to raise a child. Your community told it's gay sons they were not wanted while your church told them they were damned. They fled to the city as soon as they could, some may have killed themselves.
In the city they felt free in anonymity, but when Gay Pride came along they wanted to express themselves in the public eye. The homophobic communities they'd fled from had told them that gay men wore short shorts and cropped shirts or speedos, what better than to dress as they'd be stereotyped when standing up in the public eye.
Now a new generation of gay men and lesbians go on the Pride Parades and they no longer need to dress stereotypically. They dress normally yet the communities from which they fled are still thinking in terms of gay men at Pride Parades flaunting themselves in public.
You are reading this on a computer, the operating parameters of your computer were created by Alan Turin, a gay man driven to suicide by a homophobic culture. His efforts broke the German Enigma Code making it possible for freedom and democracy to return to the world. A few gay boys in speedos prancing about in Pride Parades 20 years ago shouldn't upset you, nor should it put you off wearing your own speedos for swimming and sunbathing.
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