Extreme body piercers just can't get any respect in Seattle, and now liken thier plight here to that of "Marilyn Manson in the Bible Belt." A few days ago, the Fremont Arts Council decided that a float with two faux pirates hanging from from a fake ship's rafters by hooks attached to their skin could not - repeat, NOT - participate in the famed Fremont Solstice Parade, an annual Seattle event famed for nude bicyclists and a giant inflatable penis. Kids, and even psychologically fragile adults, might be too bugged out by the stretched flesh, the Council decided.

But now, in a body blow to the political identity of the "suspension" practioners (that's what this new trend is callled - "suspension") our local public radio station has aired a report in which an Arts Council member suggested their hobby (or would that be "fetish"?) is violent, AND might be better suited to the local (gay) Pride parade.

This assertion in turn, has sparked SERIOUS DEBATE. City Council member Tom Rasmussen, who is gay, has weighed in:

....I don't think piercings or tattoos are any more unique to the gay community than any other community. Everyone has different ideas of what constitutes gay behavior or fashion and it's as individual as any other community. People ought to stop stereotyping."

Organizers of the annual Pride Parade, which occurs a week after the Solstice Parade, said they'd welcome the group with open arms. But they think there might be a misperception of what their parade is about.

"I'd almost take it personally as more of a compliment that we're open and accepting to people as individuals, rather than being close-minded and snooty because of how somebody looks," said Tammy Zoch, vice president of the Pride Committee. "Everyone can be themselves and feel OK about it and feel they're empowered to be who they are and honest with the world and that they're not marginalized for that. That's what the celebration of pride is about. It's not a big walking orgy down the street.

Not too much, anyway, Tammy. Putting aside the rustic notion that pride comes from within and should not have to be paraded, I think we need another parade in Seattle, and it should be held on May Day, when all the anarchists, anti-globalization and Free Mumia protestors come out of the woodwork. Wiccans, "suspension" practitioners on floats, vegans, animal rights and medical marijuana activists, and any one else with a cause can join in.

The only rules: no blood, no traffic obstruction, no looting, no property crimes, and no violence (beyond the self-inflicted kind, that its).

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at June 17, 2005 07:58 AM