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San Francisco Muni Buses Promote Equality! |
By Roy Steele
This year’s gay pride parade in San Francisco, by most accounts, was a smashing success. I don’t know what people experienced in other parts of the country, but exuberant optimism was in the rarefied air. The feeling was palpable and exciting, and it made navigating the crowds at the parade and celebration, more tolerable than in years past.
I’ve been to countless pride parades in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. I haven’t attended a New York pride parade in a long time, but after looking at a lot of Flickr photos of both events, it looked like the exuberance wasn’t limited to the left coast.
When I was living in New York in the nineties, pride had become very grim. The gay community was decimated by the AIDS epidemic, and the pride parade was an enormous political protest march. I appreciated that the political nature of the parade was necessary. It was important to stand in solidarity with our community, just as it is today, but there were times when it was difficult and immensely sad. I never made it through those parades, without shedding more than a few tears for the absent friends lost to the virus, largely caused by the havoc that was wrought on our community by bigotry and homophobia.
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Act-Up New York City Pride Parade 1990's |
There is still a political purpose to our pride parades, and I hope that during my lifetime, after we achieve full equality in the eyes of our governmental institutions, and the law, that we can spend the day that marks the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, as a day full of nothing but celebration.
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Act-Up New York City Pride Parade 1990's |
When we watched the Sydney parade, we were seated in a grandstand. I was shocked at the number of straight families surrounding us, with their picnic baskets, strollers, and toddlers. I remember asking a woman sitting nearby with her family, why they came to the parade. She looked at me incredulously, and said she’d been going to the parade for years. She said urban Aussie’s considered Mardi Gras to be a big holiday jubilee, that straight and gay people celebrated alike.
On Sunday, I saw quite a few LGBT and straight families lined up along Market Street, to watch the parade. A few dads had toddlers perched on their shoulders, and some moms were holding rainbow flags. They cheered when the dykes on bikes rode past, and after former mayor Willie Brown passed us, a visiting mom asked me if Willie was a drag king or queen. I laughed pretty hard at that one, and said “no, Willie is our colorful former mayor. I’m sure Willie would have no problem being a drag queen, if he was looking for your vote.”
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Pride 2012 |
Smiling exuberantly and breathing the rarefied air of optimism made my day. I hope that reading about it here, made your day too.
Happy Pride for yesterday, today and in the future!
straight talk in a queer world. jiveinthe415.com

© 2012 JIVEINTHE415.COM
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