Gay Pride
This weekend was the big Gay Pride festival and parade. My boyfriend, an out-of-town friend, and I were supposed to volunteer at the festival from 4pm to 6pm, but when we got there they didn't really need us. So, we took advantage of the free water and burritos for volunteers and just kind of stood around in the heat.The parade here is at night here since 95 degrees and 100% humidity in June aren't the best conditions for parades. I watched the first 17 entries go by but left by 9:30 because I was too tired (and kind of bored) to stay around. I heard it wrapped up around midnight. Most of the entries I saw were politicians, including the Mayor, the city Controller, 2 or 3 Congress members, and a handful of state representatives, which was nice to see even if a little dull.
The announcers at the event were claiming 250,000 spectators, which would be way up from the 150,000 or so last year. I didn't see the news, so I don't know what they were saying about the size of the crowd, but I imagine their coverage showed the 2 or 3 floats with scantily clad men or drag queens and ignored the dozens with families, churches, and politicians marching. I'm always amazed at how tame the parade is when I'm there compared to what I see on the news later. Apparently drag queens sell.
posted by Brady @ 7:54 AM
2 Comments:
I went to the Chicago Pride Parade yesterday. Like you, my friends and I were bored with the high number of politicians. I expected it to be very commercialized after seeing so many businesses the last two years, but it seemed like at least a third of the entries were politicians.
We decided that in the future they should require politicians to dress in drag or perform in some entertaining way. Hahah! They ought to give something back for making us stand around watching their dull cars and marchers. Plus it would weed out all those that are just there to curry favor, but aren't really in full support of us. For heaven's sake, if as many politicians as I saw there were active on our behalf, we wouldn't have any problems.
Overall, very family-oriented. No assless chaps...thank goodness. Lot of short shorts and underwear, but really no more flesh than you would see on a beach.
Lovely weather.
Dash- sorry, I just saw this for some reason. Don't get me wrong, I like to see politicians showing their support, but after 30-45 minutes straight of politicians standing and waiving, and then waiting for the parade to move on, it just got a bit old.
Oh, and ours was very family oriented too, which I was glad to see. Do you think the news folks get mad when it takes them all day to find 30 seconds worth of stereotypical gay footage?
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