I didn't know until today that Albany Gay Pride was this past weekend.  I don't generally go to any of the Pride events.  I mostly don't really give a crap about them.  I guess the reason is Albany is a small town and whenever there's an event, it's always the same old sad faces mixing and mingling (to be polite) in a drunken and inappropriate stupor.  Albany is a small town and it seems everyone knows everyone else.

But it got me to thinking about being a gay man in this day and age.  I don't define myself as being a gay man.  I'm so much more than that.  But I know plenty of people who do define themselves as gay men and nothing more than that.  To me, that's sad.  To pigeonhole yourself as one small aspect of yourself seems ridiculous to me.  Why would anyone want to ghettoize (is that a word?) themselves?  It's like me saying I'm going to self-identify only as a blue eyed man.  I'm only going to associate with others with blue eyes.  I'm only going to talk about being blue eyed.  I'm going to go blue-eyed shopping and I'm going to go blue-eyed hiking and I'm going to throw blue-eyed dinner parties and go blue-eyed kayaking.  I'm going to paint my entire house blue and I'm going to wear more blue than I know what to do with.  When it's put that way, doesn't it seem very sad?

Being gay is such a small part of who I am.  I'm that, but I'm so many other things.  

So nothing against Gay Pride events.  I've been to them.  I've had a good time at them.  I especially loved going to the NYC event.  But I really don't need the crap that quickly gets associated with Pride.  It seems like getting drunk (again, nothing wrong with that) is the number one focus of just about any gay pride event in this area.  I'm 46 years old.  I outgrew my drunken college days a lifetime ago.