It appears from a Friday article in the San Francisco Chronicle, that the decision of the California Bluegrass Association to enter a float in the 2017 San Francisco Gay Pride Parade has caused a rift in the membership.
The Board of the larger CBA voted 10-1 to give their approval for the San Francisco chapter to submit the float, and use crowdfunding to raise the necessary cash at a meeting in January. At the end of March, the effort was announced publicly, and funding through GoFundMe announced to seek donations for the roughly $10,000 required. In just over 3 weeks, the campaign has successfully raised almost that entire amount.
But there are members within the San Francisco chapter who are not happy about the organization choosing sides on an issue that they feel divides the membership. While the parade is meant as emblematic of the theme of gay pride, it has often been the scene of highly sexualized displays, and nudity is not uncommon.
CBA Board chair Tim Edes, who voted against the motion to allow the float, is quoted by The Chronicle as saying that he feels that voicing support for volatile issues is beyond their mission.
It “was an unwritten rule that we left all those things at home, that our festivals, concerts and jams was about the music,” said banjo player and board Chairman Tim Edes, 65, the lone dissenting vote in January.
“I have always felt that this organization made a very concerted effort to stay away from social, political or any potentially divisive issue,” he said. “By entering a float in the Pride Parade, we are endorsing a nonmusical enterprise. We are establishing an opinion, an opinion that may not be shared by all of our members.”
The article makes the point that while gay rights are assumed as a given by many people in this country, it is something not shared equally by those living away from coastal areas. And as we saw during the recent presidential election, there are strong cultural divides that remain among the citizens of the US, often inexplicably so to some voters.
That rift is clearly seen in a response from the regional CBA vice president.
“There has been a certain amount of resistance” to the float, said San Francisco region vice president Ted Kuster, 53, a technical writer at Salesforce who plays banjo in four bluegrass bands, including the Beauty Operators and Nobody From Nashville.
“Some people have grown up thinking of gay rights as a political movement,” he said. “Most of us have stopped thinking that a long time ago. But this is still a real thing for a lot of people. We are just trying to subvert the normal, standard reaction when you hear ‘bluegrass,’ which is hillbillies, backwoods and bootleggers — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
For the organization, the dispute seems to be having an overall positive effect. The Chronicle reports that while a number of people have dropped their memberships in protest, many more new members have come aboard in support.
You can read more about this matter on The Chronicle’s web site.
