Reflecting on LA Pride from a gay dad’s perspective: “I’m depressed.”

Max Mutchnick [not pictured] offers his unique observations of a major Pride Festival. He recently attended LA Pride with his family [husband and twin girls]. His latest contribution to The Huffington Post allows us to feel his anxiety and share his disappointment about being an outsider at such a supposedly welcoming event.

Max writes: “…when we were planning our weekend, I thought it might be a cool idea to take the kids to Gay Pride after music class. I could just see us putting them in Baby Bjorns and walking amongst our people and really being a part of it. But as I sat in my car, watching from the periphery, I started to worry. Were these my people? I used to get comforting goose bumps at Gay Pride parades. I am a part of something. These sexual outlaws and gender pioneers are my brothers and sisters and we are part of a community. But for the first time, I felt like an outsider.

“Dykes on bikes, Tarzana Trannies, Jewish Leather Daddies and Kathy Griffin’s mom. Don’t get me wrong. I love these people. Let’s call them the “Usual Suspects.” They fought for my rights and taught me how to dance. But they should no longer be representing “the pride.” It’s a different time. For god’s sake, Larry Craig is a life-long homosexual. What I’m trying to say is that “unremarkable” mainstream people are gay, too. So I cringe when a local newsperson shoves a microphone in the face of some young 95-pound twink [pictured] (Straight Translation: a twink is a skinny homosexual with a lot of moxie). The twink looks into the camera and screams into the reporter’s microphone: “Get down here now. The drinks are big. But you know what’s bigger…” He laughs in a high-pitched cackle and his “girlfriends” join in. I wish they’d read more and drink less.

“I’m depressed. Why is this the voice speaking for me?”