Proud.

Another year passes, and Pride has come to Brighton. And I'm missing it. Again.
The reason that I am not attending is because I have found myself to be very much like an old man.

No, not because I am a brainless bigot and I can't accept that homosexuality is a natural, biological occurance, and not a choice made purely to antagonise society.

I am missing Pride because I have a bad back.

It has been a while since I've been, and all of the times I've missed it, I would have gone if I could. I won't bore you with the details.

However, Pride is an interesting time in Brighton. It is interesting because it is something that is associated with Brighton across the UK. Brighton is known as the "gay capital of Britain".

What this tends to mean is that whenever you go anywhere that isn't Brighton, and say, "I'm from Brighton", you are asked, almost instinctively "are you gay?"

To answer that question, allow me to quote you the 2001 census, which admittedly is 9 years of date, but you'll get over it.

1.29% of households in Brighton are same-sex. That's right, 1.29%. Not 100.29%. Not even 12.9%. 1.29%.
It's difficult to tell how many people are gay, because it's a dificult thing to define before you bring in bi-sexuals, or bi-curiousity. But estimates suggest between 8 and 13% of Brighton is gay.

Don't get me wrong, that's very high. Wolverhampton, for example, has a percentage of gay people in the minus numbers. The standard across the UK is 2-3%. Note, these numbers are highly debatable.

Nevertheless, that means there is an 87-92% chance that I am not gay.
Possibly the fact that I'm wearing a Power Rangers t-shirt and own 2 seperate Backstreet Boys albums reduces that percentage considerably, but it's still a bit unfair.

Not everyone in Brighton is gay, I can confirm that now. The one's that are, in my experience, tend to be good people with infinitely more good character than those people who would torment them for their sexuality.

However, I feel a little guilty just saying that. Putting theall gay people in the same category, as if a single characteristic like that defines the rest of their personality. I don't do this, for example, for people with green eyes, or taste in literature. I'll do my best not to do it in future.

I hope Pride goes great.