Thursday, October 25
Rainbow signs on Broadway: Only part of maintaining the neighborhood
Street signs with rainbow flag colors help define Philadelphia's 'Gayborhood'
photo: TowleroadResponding to the
distressing story in today's PI about an upsurge of anti-gay threats and violence on Capitol Hill, The Stranger's
Dan Savage suggests that we should consider marking the neighborhood to claim it as uniquely gay. As he points out, that's been done in Chicago. It's also been
done in Philadelphia and elsewhere.
Great idea.
But it's a bit ironic coming from one of the primary supporters of the downtown Pride parade. Savage is right that anti-gay threats and violence are not new on the Hill. There have been periods of violence for years, including the series of incidents that eventually gave rise, as he points out, to Q-Patrol.
I'm not suggesting that this recent uptick in threats and violence would have been less severe if the parade had remained where it belongs on the Hill, but only that maintaining that annual day of celebration in the neighborhood is an important aspect of 'marking' the neighborhood as uniquely ours.
I'd love to see permanent physical markings on the street like they have in Chicago and Philadelphia but it seems bizarre to argue in May and June that we've all 'grown beyond' that neighborhood, and then claim a few months later that we should do something to mark it as our own.