Pride in San Francisco

[ErinRachel1021]

Okay, so hopefully this won't turn into a heated debate. I know not everyone agrees, and that's fine. We're all entitled to our own opinions...
BUT
N0matter and myself went to the Pride Parade and Festivities yesterday in San Francisco and I can't even describe the feeling...
It was such a happy positive atmosphere. You could really feel the love (corny as that sounds). It was a gorgeous day in the city. The parade was a lot of fun with a lot of outlandish floats and very imaginative costumes. The Dykes on Bikes we absolutely fabulous. Then there were parts where I was moved to tears when it came to the family portions. Little kids carrying signs saying "I love my two mommies" and "Love makes a family". All these families who have adopted children or had them through various means and they're HAPPY and WELL ADJUSTED children. It just warmed my heart. While watching the parade I had a lesbian couple on my left who were all about getting beads and cheering on the little kids and then on my right was a family...mom, dad, 7 year old son and baby. They were also having a blast and I loved so much to see parents teaching their children tolerance at an early age.
And the GELLED ONE! Be still my heart the man is gorgeous. And what a wonderful man Mayor Gavin Newsome is. RUN FOR PRESIDENT GAVIN! You'd have my vote any day.
Afterwards we walked around the closed off blocks near the civic center and visited all the booths (and still behaved outselves on Atkins!). We got some great pictures that we'll post later.
*sigh*
What a wonderful day. It will stay with me forever.

[Heidi3]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

I love PRIDE WEEK OMG it is totally a blast here in the Seattle area....the festivities are insane ..this year we did not get to go but we have always attended ...they did however broadcast the entire parade on TV here so we did watch and that was fun ...just not as fun as being there in person....

Gay straight or whatever Pride week is about people gathering and supporting one another ....and since I am all about that

[n0matter]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

Copied from my blog:

Anyone who knows me is aware that I'm anything but homophobic. I've never really been able to click with "the guys" in any sort of unspoken macho, manly way and I've never been into cars or FPS video games or has any desire to work construction. I'm the sensitive and occasionally effeminate one that lets emotion dictate my actions and cares about personal hygene. Don't get me wrong, a sissy I am not and a good woman I desire and appreciate. But my demeanor is something that makes it much easier to appreciate one million people, a great majority of which are bi or homosexual, gathering on the streets of the gay mecca of the United States to be as colorful, flamboyant and naked as they so desire for an afternoon of celebration.

This was actually my first Gay Pride experience. I've lived in the Bay area for most of my life but have avoided the event for any number of reasons, most of which were all about laziness or not wanting to solo it or something of the sort. I've caught snippets on the news and read about it in the paper and consider myself to be somewhat versed on the various factions consistantly represented in the parade. But I suspect that there's something magical about it for everyone the first time they get to see it up close. Suffice to say that I was not disappointed.

The weather was perfect, which definitely helped set the tone; mid-70's(as it almost always is in downtown SF), sunny with a slight breeze. The parade began about a block away from my workplace and Erin and I picked a well-shaded spot where we could park ourselves up against the police barracades. In proper Pride parade tradition, the event was kicked off with a good 10 minutes of dykes on bikes. Leather-bound masculine women riding some very impressive machinery and sporting their often sexy counterparts in the "*****" position. What followed was an assembly of every major and minor gay organization, faction and individual that you could possibly imagine. Rollerskaters sporting a peacock-like assortment of balloons on their backs, a truck full of gay clogging enthusiasts, uniformed SFPD officers holding hands with their gay counter-parts. The variety is simply too great and would require far too much detail to expand upon in this blog. It was just immense and awesome to behold.

What got me most was the vibe generated by both the participants and the crowd. Everyone was 100% at ease and comfortable with everyone else. No one was there to judge or hate or express any negativity at all--it was as if the city time warped back to the 70's for a day, when sexuality was anything but repressed and America had adopted a very peaceful anti-violence stance. How often can you say that you're surrounded by hundreds of thousands of essentially friendly, happy people?

We BARTed to the Civic Center, where the parade was to finish and the real celebration began. A half mile in every direction, the streets of San Francisco were FLOODED with people. Throngs of people moved up and down avenues flanked by stands representing a diverse mixture of organizational, politcal and commercial product. It was basically a free fair of immense proportions centered around the SF city hall(one of my favorite buildings here, inside and out). My tolerance for large groups of people and the sun and Erin's tolerance for walking around for more than 3 or 4 hours coupled with the fact that we couldn't eat or drink about 99% of everything available there ultimately resulted in our departure at around 3:00ish. But not before we were able to burn through two roles of film, buy some standard merchandise and, most importantly, soak up and appreciate what the celebration was all about.

In retrospect, the whole experience was inspiring and emotional but carried with it some very sad spiritual and political undertones. Encouraging is that the parade is now more a celebration than the 'demonstration' that it was 25 years ago. But you have to realize that everything good that comes of something like this is at the expense of oppression suffered the other 364 days of the year. A city full of people supporting civil liberties unfortunately isn't going to change the mind of half a country full of conservative <offensive name-calling removed>. It boggles the mind how a faction so capable of creating something so captivating and convivial can be made into an evil, vicious scapegoat by a government that prides itself on providing its citizens with the most comprehensive freedoms in the world. So sad...

Edited by Kent to remove offending name.

[Lady_Hawke]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

People are people. I agree Heidi - support and love everyone.

Erin it sounds like you had an awesome time! Thanks for sharing it with us and look forward to you posting some pics!

[Heidi3]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

my husband was voted an "honorary lesbian" by our friends at the last pride parade we attended ..he was thrilled with that!!!! LOL he is one big hairy lesbian that is for sure!!!!

[Heidi3]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

I always thought that I could be gay if I was not so hot for men

[ErinRachel1021]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=0&f=/c/a/2006/06/26/MNGAVJKD7D1.DTL

Awesome pictures in there. Especially of the police officer holding his child. :*)

[presidentholmes]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

Sounds great fun.

[Piasabird]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

Why are the liberals so much into FREE SPEECH until someone says something they don't like? Like the person who started this thread wrote, everyone has their own opinions. But then someone has to make a comment like this one .....

A city full of people supporting civil liberties unfortunately isn't going to change the mind of half a country full of conservative <offensive name-calling removed>.

I find this statement offensive. I do consider myself a conservative and I don't nesscessarily care if homosexuals get married. I believe that someday they will be able to. It's just a matter of time, but it will happen. And I say let them be as miserable as 75% of the rest of us. Just don't flaunt it in my face. I don't like it when heterosexuals flaunt their sexuality in public either.

And that's the view of this "conservative *****". Thank you very much!!

[ErinRachel1021]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

^It's unfortunate that you had to pick out and take offense to one very small line of an otherwise very well written and insightful post.

[n0matter]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

Why are the liberals so much into FREE SPEECH until someone says something they don't like? Like the person who started this thread wrote, everyone has their own opinions. But then someone has to make a comment like this one .....
I find this statement offensive. I do consider myself a conservative and I don't nesscessarily care if homosexuals get married. I believe that someday they will be able to. It's just a matter of time, but it will happen. And I say let them be as miserable as 75% of the rest of us. Just don't flaunt it in my face. I don't like it when heterosexuals flaunt their sexuality in public either.

And that's the view of this "conservative ****". Thank you very much!!

Sorry you took offense. Please be sure to write to your congressman and explain to him/her that you're also sick of the Bush administration prioritizing an issue such as gay marriage during a time of war. Judging from your response, I'd say that you are against the idea of amending the constitution to stipulate something so outrageous in this day and age. But the sad fact is that it would be a non-issue if Republicans and conservatives(if that doesn't sound too redundant) are mostly responsible for the oppression I mentioned in my original post. And being anti-gay marriage/adoption/etc. is one of the building blocks of these respective factions. Are you sure you're labeling yourself accurately? Because what you're saying would be like me stating that I'm very liberal but can't stand those pesky pro-choicers.

[Jacksuncle]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

Drama. This thread will prolly eventually be locked too. I actually used to go and support my cross dressing friend David A.K.A. Lucky Fox when he/she did her shows. What I found out from the gay community is that they are totally loving and understanding and accept you no matter who or what you are. Although they did refer to me and my girl friend as "breeders" lol. I think one of my favorite performers was a nice young person named "Do Me More". Haha looked like Demi too. Anyways I could never be gay because...well.. chicks are hot I dont know where I am going with this but I will say that topics like these can get crazy quick so I hope no one builds up resentments to one another. I will decline to express my opinions on gay marriage and all that goes with it but its good that you guys had fun.

[Bren]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

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[ErinRachel1021]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

*sigh*
I was really hoping it wouldn't come to this.

[n0matter]

Re: Pride in San Francisco

4) Some posts may be deemed overly controversial for this board. We may choose not to allow certain posts that may cause flame wars or split the board. Topics such as race, religion and politics may be censored if it is not tightly coupled with the atkins diet or are potentially offensive. For instance the topic of 'abortion and the atkins diet' may not be allowed on this board. Not because the board is pro or anti abortion but because of the political/religious/emotional debate potential.

Ok. Then why the **** would you have a "miscellaneous chit chat" board and apply this particular rule to it? Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose? What a huge contradiction. If someone is so sensitive that they really need to complain about a board with HUGE GLOSSY "PEACE, HAPPINESS, ACCEPTANCE AND UNDERSTANDING" overtones then by all means take it down. I thought we were all adults here but apparently I was wrong.