Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride

"Protest, parade, political action or celebration: what is Pride? President of Vancouver Pride and parade organizer Ken Coolen knows what it means to him. But at the 2007 InterPride Conference in Zurich, Switzerland, he meets delegates from countries where a Pride event is a forbidden fantasy. Take Sri Lanka, one of eighty countries that still criminalizes homosexuality. There, rape is used to “cure” lesbianism. Or a man seeking asylum from what has been called the most homophobic nation in the world: Jamaica. Thirteen of his friends have been murdered. In countries like these, Pride is less an occasion for partying than a daring act from which there is no turning back. Coolen travels to Warsaw, Poland, to take part in a tense march...