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Castro Street Fair

The Castro Street Fair was the other weekend.  We did not attend, which for us was quite difficult as it took place right outside our door.  Below is a shot of it taken from the balcony of our apartment.   

It seems that some San Francisco city dwellers take events like this as an opportunity to put their 'personal habits' on display, no matter how X-rated their 'personal habits' may be, and feel that they are somehow protected under the umbrella of "freedom of expression."   This is done at the expense  of the entire community; specifically kids and people who aren't into the XXX stuff. 

The Folsom Street Fair is a great example of this.  We went to the Folsom Street Fair the other weekend and left feeling sick to our stomachs from some of the stuff we saw.  A tame example was a guy who had just freshly pierced four holes in each of his arms, run fishing line through them, and attached sleigh bells to the lines, with fresh drops of blood still crusted on the wounds.  So maybe that was just gross, and certainly not illegal, but my point is there was a lot of stuff going on at that fair that you would not want a kid to see. 

Ok,  don't get your kilt ruffled over what I'm saying--I am not trying to stifle anyone's creativity or limit anyone's freedom to do anything.  San Francisco is pretty good about protecting our First Amendment Rights, and no one is arguing that we should ask anyone to be quiet or stay home.  I am all for complete freedom of expression.  I would not like to see restrictions placed on anyone or arrests made or anything like that.  I would just like the individuals who attend the Castro Street Fair to be considerate of the community as a whole, especially given that it is meant to be a daytime, neighborhood event.  I suspect many of the attendees are out-of-towners who abuse our community thinking that's the norm here - much like how the tourists feed the drug and prostitution rings of Amsterdam - not the locals.  

The Folsom Street Fair folks can do whatever the heck they want, it was a closed off area in a deserted business district, admission was charged, I guess they could say it was an "adult only" event.  But the Castro Fair, now that's a different story altogether.  Despite what people might think, there are lots of families with small kids in the Castro - and when I say "family," I mean couples, straight and gay, with small children.  It seems to me that the Fair people have decided that the Castro neighborhood is all about "adult entertainment" and this leaves the families and other folks who don't equate homosexuality with lasciviousness out in the cold when its time for their neighborhood to celebrate with its street fair. 

Again, don't get me wrong, have the Exotic Erotic Ball, have a Fetish Festival in the park if you want, parade naked through the streets for a week, but don't turn the local street fair into a triple X event. If the members of the community here - including straights, gays and lesbians - want to enjoy a street fair in their neighborhood they shouldn't have to leave the kids home.  Castro has a Halloween event that is late at night and can be as raunchy as we want it to be.  But the whole point of the afternoon street fair is to get people out of their houses for a day, get them rallied together,  and to solidify the community.  I think they miss the  mark here and the whole community suffers as a result. 

Above photo of Chris on our balcony is also a video clip link - viewer discretion is advised, this film clip contains images of extremely big hair which may be disturbing to some viewers.

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