I went to my first Pride parade earlier today and had quite a time.
We started out about a quarter of the way through the parade lineup nestled between a swarm of Obama supporters and a troupe of Brazilian ladies, former dudes, and dudes, all of whom were rocking skimpy Carmen Miranda-esque outfits. There was a man who bore a strong resemblance to Dwight from the office. He was wearing naught but feather boots and baroque gold underwear, and he was shaking it. I didn't have a chance to catch him on camera, but here are a few of the lovely ladies(?) I managed to get a shot of:
Woman, man, former-man-now-women, nice asses all. Except for Dwight. Sorry, Dwight. To keep things PG-13, I regretfully can't post pictures of said asses. Use your imagination and/or Google.
ANYWAY. One thing that intrigued me was just how much support Obama has from the LGBT community. Maybe I've just been relatively insulated from Obamamania, but the group in front of us got really fired up. They had a little dance and everything. They also had a mix of handmade signs:
and signs that I assume were donated by the Obama campaign:
As you can see on the shirts, those dudes and ladies are from what I assume is the group Out for Obama, but I couldn't find a recently updated site. At any rate, they're here, they're queer, and they're organized. Barack Obama has a pink posse.
There was also quite a bit of support from residents of the neighborhood, like so:
Happy birthday, gay pride Obama supporter dude.
I also saw a group of Lt. Dangle impersonators. Don't be fooled by the fact that you see only one in this picture:
The out of left field surprise of the pre-parade preparations was the arrival of Bozo the clown (you know what they say about guys with big shoes), but I didn't get a picture of him. This is almost as good though:
Spongebob! That's no way to dispel the rumors that you love the cock!
I didn't have a chance to get any pictures once the parade stepped off, but I noticed some things while I tossed beads at whoever yelled the loudest/was cute/was old. There was surprising demographic diversity. There were as many people who defied stereotypes as there were who confirmed them--basically every age/race/etc demographic that you can think of was present in the crowd, and besides the fact that it's a hell of a lot of fun, that may be the best thing about the parade. It's a reminder for everyone that they're not as alone as they might think.
Also: people go nuts for beads. They lose their shit. My theory afterwards was that people view receiving beads as affirmation that complete strangers view them as attractive or otherwise noteworthy, but that might be reading too much into it. Maybe they just like shiny things. Magpies, the lot of them. If you're marching in a parade and are distributing beads, prepare to be harassed. A lot. And it's not even Mardi Gras, so sexy coeds have no incentive to show you their tits. On the bright side, a cute redheaded dude kissed my cheek after I gave him a strand. So hey, fringe benefits?
At the end of the day, I had two strands of beads and two aching legs to show for it. It was a good time. If your town has a Pride parade, go to it. If it already had one, go next year. It doesn't matter if you're gay, straight, or bi; if you go in with an open mind, you'll enjoy yourself.
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. Frederick Douglass
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