I always had issues with the pride stuff, mainly because they're for things a person doesn't CHOOSE to be.  How can I be proud of being a straight white woman when I did nothing to ensure that's what I was?!  I was BORN that way, and being BORN that way is the very reason we shouldn't judge people for their ethnicity or sexual preference.  I am proud of the things I've accomplished, but not of who I am--I'm not ashamed of who I am, but I didn't move mountains to turn out to be what was there from the start in my genetic makeup.

Now a straight proud Mardi Gras, I'm imaging, would just be boring and ugly...I'm pretty sure it would be like going to Wal-Mart on Saturday.

Oh i don't know about that.... is the mardi gras in rio a gay pride one? i don't think so and that is anything but boring and ugly.

     Welcome to the club Nimbin. Been on this rock goin' on 60 years and not once have I given credence to the so called politically correct bullshit. All that is is a catchword for someone not having the balls to stand up and say what's on his or her mind for fear of hurting someone's feelings. You know...there's an old saying...If you can't take the heat stay the hell out of the kitchen.

     Where I grew up in Brooklyn NY it was amidst the old world families. Italian, Jewish etc. My old man drilled into us kids heads from day one that it makes no damn difference the color of your skin, what religion you hold to or what sexual orientation is yours, to him it didn't matter. What mattered to him and matters to me is how you conduct yourself as a person. So yeah...be proud...be damn proud of who and what you are and let all those idiots who don't have the intelligence of a flea because they can't see beyond the nose on their faces all go the way of all things that don't work, in other words, die off. My rant too!

way to go nim, you know, ive got my own style of dress sense, and today i bought a kids hello kitty beanie and wore it with pride,,, yep with real rock god pride,

i like hello kitty.....so what? you gotta problem with that?? LOL

I also bought a crazy pink bag to put all my stuff in when i go out, and when i got home i revamped it totally, changed out the handles and made them into

one long over the shoulder band, glued on hello kitty stickers, changed out the zipper grippers to glow in the dark stars, painted some of the pink parts with nikko pen black... looks like one funked up super techno mi bag now hahahah

hey nim, you know im in sweden now right?......... no shit, i really am,

and i love your post, i really think you rock !!! \m/ 

Excellent! Simply Excellent!

You need new friends, talking about a straight pride Mardi Gras does not make you homophobic (although I don't know how your conversation went).  Standing up and saying "I'm **** and proud" is usually against social norms and the person in question is from a minority, they have something to prove.

You are not an a**hole, Nimbin ... just one of the common (proud) herd

From the Urban Dictionary:

Good for you Nimbin, Political Correctness is an insidious form of censorship, I have found most Liberals on the far side believe in free speech as long as it is speech they approve of.

Here in the south, we have White Pride marches all the time...it's called a KuKluxKlan rally!       

Come on down....just remember to bring your own .         

Totally agree 100%, Nimbin, and that's coming from someone who's gay and transsexual (I've not felt it necessary to mention the latter before because it's not been relevant to anything I've had to say or contribute on here, before now.)  These things do not define me. Just as wearing 'Goth' clothing and listening to 'Goth' music, doesn't define me. Mainly because I wear other types of clothes and listen to other types of music, but also because they're clothes and anyone can wear them, and it's music and anyone can listen to it. It's not what or who I am, but what I do that defines me.

I've never understood what the purpose of a gay pride parade is. As a guy I know once said, "If a man walked down the road in nothing but a gold thong on any other day, he'd be looking at getting arrested". I don't see what a gold thong has to do with being gay. I've known plenty of guys that are gay, and they didn't have a gold thong, Hawaiian shirt or lisping effeminate voice between them (not that I'd begrudge them having those things), though they were still as queer as a bottle of chips, and in some cases, as camp as a row of pink tents. It didn't matter, because they were good and decent people.

I'm as tired of all the goddamn PC BS as anyone else. You can't say boo to a goose without someone getting up in arms about it, and so much of it only serves to make us more fractured as a society, instead of making us see that we're all just trying to get through life and earn the right to call ourselves human on a daily basis.

You can be sky blue with pink polka dots as far I'm concerned. If you're not acting like an arse, and making life harder for others than it need be, then you're fine and dandy by me.

ALL forms of extremism are [or should be] beyond the bounds of public acceptance and thus irrelevant to interpretations/discussions of 'political correctness'.

Gay pride marches came about from societies where seemingly it was OK to be bashed to death by 'your country' but you were not allowed to die FOR 'your country'.

On a side note....seems Australia is to be the fourth country to allow front-line soldiers of the female persuasion....

Nimbin, I think you are confusing the issue. Gays and Blacks are a minority. Both groups have suffered a lot at the hands of the White male majority. Gays are still terribly hounded. Take for example the Gay soldier who called in during the recent Republican debate and was loudly booed. Here's an American soldier who had been to Iraq putting his life on the line for us and he's being booed by those Tea Party morons! Then there's the racial discrimination that is still part of American life. The thing is these people are minorities and they need to have pride. That's a big difference compared to somebody, a white male for example, someone who probably hasn't had to suffer real discrimination in his life. Real discrimination is getting lynched because you are black or you get the hell beat out of you because you are gay. Gay people and Black people suffer through those things just because they are Gay or Black and not because of anything they have done. That's just wrong.

That's just not funny at all.

Ah...now I recall...the other three are Israel, Canada and New Zealand ...

I'm not prejudiced,I hate everyone quite equally.

As world population goes, blacks are equal in population to whites and are not as much a minority as you think. 

Asian 54% 
Black 15%
White 15%
Hispanic 8%
Middle Eastern 8%

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_world_population_and_race_breakdown#ixzz1ZIUgIEWZ