A child's playground

I found links to this photo essay all over the Web today. Thanks to both Ace of Spades and Little Green Footballs, the ones that I read faithfully.

It's about the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. It's a fun family event, sponsored by Miller. Miller Beer: The official beer of public orgies.

I'm tossing in the link, but I cannot stress enough that this link deserves the highest possible grade of NSFW. If you aren't into public masturbation, oral sex, and men abusing themselves in ways that God didn't really intend, then DO NOT click through.

The saddest part is that my headline isn't a joke. If you do click and you make it through far enough, you will see small children dressed "appropriately" for the events. The outfits aren't really disgusting, but seeing a couple of cute little 5 year old girls wearing leather and surrounded by this sort of thing is disconcerting to say the least.

Look, I'm all about personal choice and personal freedom. If a person is gay, terrific. I don't roll that way, but I'm not gonna judge you if you do. If you like to be spanked, whipped or whatever, good for you. Again, it ain't my thing, but roll on. I have my little quirks as well, and I don't want to be judged for them.

But then, I don't run around advertising my sexual fantasies. And especially not on public streets. With little children around.

Though I admit this last point is questionable- after all, the kids are there because their parents take them. Which to my mind opens up a whole other can of worms regarding their suitability as parents. But I suppose that if social services looked into the parenting of the men in question, that would be "homophobia", so they get a pass.

This is just too much. I don't understand how this is supposed to convince anybody that homosexuality is okay. To my mind, it shows how out of touch these people are, and gets them shunted further and further out of the mainstream. Fine, I get it: celebrate who you are, and don't feel guilty about it, because you aren't alone. But it's 2007, and if someone still feels abnormal because he or she is an exhibitionist, then he/she certainly has never been on the internet.

Go ahead and do your thing. Just don't shove it in the faces of the rest of us. Because it's too much for some of us to take. I have no problem with gay rights, but this is turning me from neutrality to opposition.

I wish I drank beer, just so I could swear off Miller products forever.