Practical Thoughts on Pride

One of the lists I lurk on, Lonestar Activists Network (formerly Houston Activists Network) is the home of a great deal of debate about what to do about Houston Pride (Move it out of Montrose, split it into multiple events, or?)...and recently some practical concerns were raised beyond the usual "Don't cave in to THE MAN", "Damned Gentrification", "Capitalism is evil" thoughts. Little things like weather and such...I chimed in as a former Pride Co-Chair and Safety Chair from long ago and far away as below...

A thought or two I'll toss in from couple stints in the Pride world long ago and far away...

Power - a centralized food court sort of arrangement can seriously reduce the number of noisy generators that often require special licensing and always cost money.

Volunteer Endurance - 1 Pride weekend will normally nuke to the ground the endurance of the vast majority of volunteers a Pride body can stir up...it could be spinning a 2nd organization to run a second event might improve endurance & surviveability for volunteers

Safety - just a pet peeve of mine, but a lot of folks in our community are optimistic and actuarial statistics are kind of boring, anyway...at least till you hit them real-time and have bodies on the ground. Always recall that as the number of attendees and length of the event(s) increase, in direct proportion to these two variables similar increases in the odds of a "Medically Significant Event" or, alternatively, "Legally Intriguing Event" and plan around them...having a few spare EMT's and paramedic vans strategically placed is a fine notion for dealing with anything from scraped knees to full-blown cardiacs, and similarly, a closely coordinated police/volunteer safety team can defuse a lot of situations that might otherwise become intriguing....