A delightful new neighbor, who happens to be a beautiful, young heterosexual woman, had never been in town for the annual Gay, Etc. Parade which takes over our Civic Center neighborhood for a weekend.
So I promised to drag her to the parade with the following advice.
"You don't want to watch the parade because it's long, slow and dull. You have to march up Market Street instead."
We walked from Civic Center down Mission Street to the staging ground in the Financial District, arriving 90 minutes into the affair which was in its dull, corporate contingent stretch.
Shunning the evil Wells Fargo float, we marched onto Market Street with a group who self-identified as Levi's employees.
We walked faster than the parade pace and caught up with a tiny Emeryville group...
...which was trailing an Oakland fire truck covered with lesbians...
...and a float of glamour girls of all genders who were part of a large crew who were proud to be from Oakland.
In truth, the San Francisco Gay, Etc. parade has long been a venue principally designed for Bay Area suburbanites and greater Northern California, which is part of why it's fun. The tourists gets to go wild in the city streets.
Our favorite group that we marched with was an anti-circumcision platoon dressed in penis costumes...
...and carrying great signs.
Why, when we form at most about 4% of the total population, is the "Straights for Gay Rights" contingent not the largest, by far, in the parade?
ReplyDeleteThere has always been a vast preponderance of straights along the parade route and in Civic Center. In the past it seemed that too many of these people came to gawk - but this year at least to me it seemed they came to celebrate and to support gay pride and it was a lovely two days, thanks in part to the perfect weather.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed seeing your photos, Mike...
ReplyDeleteAnd I bet your friend from out of town will never be the same...