West Pride

“West Pride is an art and culture festival in Göteborg, Sweden created by and for homosexuals, bisexuals, transgender people, queer people and more. The festival is intended as an annual recurring festival. It was originally called the LGBT festival, but changed its name to HBTQ to be more inclusive. “Queer” does not constitute any specific minority group, but is a perspective on exclusion and critique of norms. From 2013, the festival is called West Pride and is Sweden’s second largest pride festival.”

We’ve been to other Pride events, such as Folsom Street Faire and San Francisco Pride, so let’s see what West Pride has to offer.

Yes, we are not dressed very pride-y, but most folks aren’t.  Not everyone at Pride is flamboyant.

Besides the West Pride Parade (later in this article), there is a large indoor space with booths, a beer and wine bar, and a stage.  The space looks empty because most people are near the stage (the blue lights that look like boobs).

Why is there an arts and crafts section at a booth that reads, “allt mellan lust och ångest”? There is probably something fundamental we don’t understand.

Whatever he is telling her, she’s not buying it.  Maybe her utbildning really did löna sig…

For some reason, djurens rätt are also a part of West Pride.  We can find no one to tell us how the two are associated.

They have a call center in Göteborg for HBTQI folks called “regnbågslinjen”.  That’s pretty cool.

Is he a cross-dresser with bad fashion sense, is that just a normal everyday smock, or is there something I don’t understand?  At any rate, his story must be riveting!

Pride is love, people.  Pay no attention to the blue and white coat-of-arms with the sword-wielding lion.

As with all these types of events that I have ever attended, they tolerate everyone except the intolerant.  Think about that for a while…

Remember those games where you have a maze with holes, and have to carefully and skillfully tilt the board to move a marble through the maze and avoid the holes?  Well, that’s still a thing in Göteborg.

Mattias and Madeleine pose for me, little bits of colored make-up on their cheeks.  Swedish cops don’t look particularly threatening by American standards, know what I mean?

They have a small stage, but everyone in the audience must stand, so you can get a good view only if you slowly work your way forward.

Also, that blonde is really built…

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I push gently through the crowd and get as close as I can.  Here is a sampling of some of the acts.

An advantage of having a low-light camera is that you can take photographs like this.

Yes, it’s a stad för alla, but where is everyone?  Where is the alla they keep talking about?

They are at the parade!

West Pride Parade

West Pride Parade is West Pride’s biggest event. “It is both a colourful party and a manifestation for LGBTQI+ rights”.  Plus it’s a “battle and a celebration”.

Every parade has a symbolic beginning, and this one has mounted police.  I’m surprised that Göteborg has horses; they are expensive to maintain and must be ridden daily, and they need experienced riders.  Do they have a practical value, such as riot control (in a place with no riots), or are they just for show?

The parade is loosely organized, with crowds of people walking casually in the parade and crowds of people watching and milling about on the sidewalk.  Fortunately, this is Sweden, and everyone is civilized and considerate.

But if trouble does arise, battle-hardened veteran police officers will enforce the laws with brutal efficiency. 

Also, yum.

Pride Parade is an opportunity for the band to show off its assets.  And, no, not everyone in Sweden is blonde, but enough are to make it seem stereotypical.

There are trans people here, including transpecies.

The parade also has flamboyantly-dressed performers.  I have a photograph of her from the front, but I like this one better.  😎 

Yes, the parade is colorful and whimsical, but there is a serious side to it, too.

West Pride Parade Causes

Parades allow disparate groups to casually publicize their beliefs, and West Pride Parade is no different.

Their slogan translates to “All love is good men”.  You can add your own punctuation and decide for yourself what it means.

In mathematics, equality is a relationship between two quantities or, more generally two mathematical expressions, asserting that the quantities have the same value, or that the expressions represent the same mathematical object.

I have to take issue with this one.  I think there may be a few statutory obstacles with having carnal relationships with some of these folks…

I don’t know what this is about.  I just like that their logo is an erect penis.

This is one of the many ambiguous causes being presented (advertised?) in this parade.  I have no idea what a Rainbow Family is. And, unless it involves a pot of gold, I’m not particularly interested.

The Swedish version of Helicopter Parents, these folks are “proud parents always by your side”.

This seems to be an organization called Femmis, and their banner reads, “voluntarily single parents with donation.”  I don’t know what that means, but I’ll guess that they have chosen to be artificially inseminated.

I once had a discussion about “justice”, and we agreed that the world is not just.  But no one could say what “justice” is, in practical terms.  Mostly, it was “everyone should do what I think is right.”

Also, “Okay, we have love and justice for all people!”  “Hooray. Now, what about for the planet itself?”  “Dammit!”

When you are the largest thing in the parade, it’s important to tell people to make room for you.

Apparently, many proud people commit suicide in Sweden.  So they have support groups.  Cool.

According to the Human Rights Campaign:

22 countries have legalized same-sex marriage nationally through legislation. Among these, Australia, Ireland and Switzerland legalized same-sex marriage through legislation only after nation-wide votes.
10 countries have legalized same-sex marriage nationally through court decisions — Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Slovenia, South Africa, Taiwan and the United States of America.
2 countries, South Africa and Taiwan, enacted legislation legalizing same-sex marriage after courts mandated them to do so.

From their website: We are a group that works for equal rights and human rights for LGBTQ people, i.e. to have the opportunity to love and live together with a person of the same sex and to be accepted for this by relatives, friends and colleagues. We also work against honor-related violence and inform about safer sex. You who are homosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and immigrant are welcome to join our association, call our hotline and come to our meetings.

So, for some reason, immigrants are thrown in the LGBTQ collective.

HBT combines LG into one letter.  Very efficient, don’t you think?

Kommunal means municipal, but beyond that, this could be anything.  Municipal bonds, municipal codes, municipal busses…

Trade union rights and human rights…have what to do with a Pride parade?  Also, I think their logo is a Möbius strip.

American Democrats Abroad certainly should be in a Pride parade, amirite?

The Swedes have this notion that, because they are visibly LGBTQ, it helps people in other places who, for personal, cultural, or political reason, cannot be as obvious about their LGBTQ-ness.  The mechanism behind this remains unclear.

At first I thought this related to folks in wheelchairs, but then realized it was the same notion as above.

These are the Hellmans Boys who, except for the guy on his phone, all have their mouths open.  I’m guessing they are Swedish Rednecks.

“Everything between desire and anxiety.”  Like, what?  Tooth disease?  Stones?  Concepts of mathematics?  And what does it have to do with Pride?  Nothing is explained here.

At this point, I’m thinking these folks are just in the wrong parade.  The Soil Parade is probably next week.

Are they HIV positive, or are they supporting folks who are HIV positive?  According to Google Translate, “livet hivet och viet” means “life is full of life”, while “livet hivet och vi-et” means “life HIV and we-et”.  Am I wrong to be confused?

According to their website, “Bearded Villains is a brotherhood of bearded gentlemen, united by respect, loyalty and love.”  It is unclear what this has to do with a Pride Parade.  But, gosh, those are nice beards!

This is another one where it seems like people are just in the parade to meet chicks and dudes and such…  Because, if you are fighting for a political cause, you probably are not nerdy.  But, maybe I am biased by Revenge of the Nerds.

Yup, nothing to do with Pride, just can excuse to give a free concert…so, they got that going for them, which is nice.

Just some Princesses of Dance.  Move along.

And finally, a pretty girl in a car brings up the rear.  Hmmmm, I could have used that sentence for the previous photograph.  🙄 

Post Pride Parade

The parade ends, and we follow behind the blue car.  After a while, we hear music, and investigate.

A few hundred people are gathered in Gustaf Adolfs torg in front of a small stage, mostly looking towards the stage, even though, as you can see, the stage performers cannot be seen.

Beneath the arrogant-looking statue of Gustavus Adolphus, tired parade marchers, parade watchers, and one businessman rests in the warm afternoon sun, uninterested in watching the performers on the stage behind them.

This is the first in my series of pretty girls standing near or on lamp posts.  Also, if you look closely, you can see my company’s building in the background.

These prideful girls in oversized boots see me point my camera that them and pose, while balancing precariously on a lamp post.

This girl managed to climb the lamp post while wearing flimsy clogs.  I don’t know if the fingerless gloves are a fashion statement or if she is a bike rider.  Still, they go with her outfit of incongruous clothing.

A woman pulls a long row of balloons and a small child behind her.  Colorful and provocative, if that’s your thing, yet everyone resists the natural inclination to pop them (the balloons, not the small child).

This woman takes a picture of herself without including any of the color or energy around her.  Why is she here?  Is she having fun? Selfies confuse me.

Okay, this is much more typical of the people attending this event.

You may have noticed, overall, the dearth of hats and sunglasses at this event.  At home in San Diego, we can pick out the tourists at the beach because they do not reflexively cover their head and eyes when outside.  We suppose that there are so few sunny days in Göteborg that it’s not ingrained in them.

Some of the music is danceable, so I dance.  Most people just stand and watch the stage. “I’m here.  I’m queer.  But don’t make me dance!”

On the far left, you can see people in coats, yet others are in shorts and tee-shirts.  It was fairly cool in the morning (hence the sweater wrapped around my waist), and it’s warm now.  Take off your coat, people.

And so, we come to the end of our article on Pride in Göteborg, Sweden.

Yes, we do make fun of it and point out strangeness and silliness, but we really are here in support of the cause of equality of rights and freedoms.  We still have very much to do — Pride organizations are very selective about who they support — but this is a very good start.

This is only the beginning of our wacky adventures in Scandinavia.  We have much more to share with you in future articles.  Vi ses senare!