The Parade
Attending a Gay Pride Festival anywhere in the world, whether you are gay or not, is always an extremely colorful, uplifting and emotional experience (your emotions could be anywhere between joy and disgust depending on who you are and how you accept others that are different from you). Go here for the history of the parade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_parade
I (we) have had the opportunity to be a part of these celebrations from San Francisco, to England. I was a participant in three SF Pride parades in California during the 90's as a member of the California AIDS Ride Cycling Team (we cycled from SF to LA to raise money in support of AIDS services in the SF & LA gay communities). When we made plans to come to DC on this trip, we didn't even realize we were going to be here for the DC Pride festivities, so we had extra fun attending the parade while we were here.
We began our Saturday Pride event at Arvydas' house in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, where we met up with old and new friends to have a rum and coke before heading out on foot to get to the parade. It was really cool that our group this day represented so many other parts of the world. Our group of friends represented Lithuania, Russia, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, England and Colombia. Sally and I were the only Americans and english was definitely the second language. We had a blast twisting languages around all day.
A photo as we set off from Arvydas' house towards the parade route.
Sally and Vladamir (Vlad), our extremely cute Slovenian friend.
Vlad & Sal became instant best friends.
Me and our dear old friend Arvydas. We have known each other since he first arrived at UC Berkeley from Lithuania, nearly 20 years ago.
How cute is this photo of Rowan and Vlad!! They are having too much fun!
Naturally, if you are at a gay pride celebration, you will have many wonderful drag queens, transvestites, transexuals, etc............so, here we are! :o)
The beauty is, no matter who you are, the event gives you the freedom to express yourself.
Even if you are someone's grandfather or an investment banker, a teacher or construction worker and love to dress up in women's clothes in your spare time. :o)
The history of the movement is always well represented. Here is a representation of how far the community has come since the NY Stonewall Riots in 1969 started the whole movement.
Contrary to what most of the press reports, the community STRONGLY supports safe sex and condom use and we take this very seriously. When standing on the sidelines of these events, one is constantly showered with condoms and safe sex information being thrown from parade participants. This is the result of the devastating AIDS pandemic that has killed so many of our friends and family over the past 30 years.
This parade is the first one I have ever attended where the religious community has been such a focal point of the event. Every single denomination was represented in the DC event. I was extremely emotional as I watched all of them walk by us. I thought I would never see this expression of acceptance from so many of them in my lifetime.
Here is a group from the local Baptist church. I was born and raised a Baptist and thought I would never see them represented at an event like this! :o)
It was amazing to see clergy from every denomination represented.
Here are the United Methodists.
United Church of Christ
This was a very big day for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The right to marriage vote in New York just passed before the parade giving same sex couples the right to marry in the state. There are now 7 states in the US that allow same sex unions. They keep working hard at it.....one state at a time.
PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) is always one of my favorite groups to whoop it up for in the parade. This is a great photo of a mom and her son(s).
And........here we are in line for a beer at a club on the parade route. I really do need to do something with 'my girls', dontcha think? :o)
As the sun started to get low in the west sky, I looked up from the patio where we were sitting at the club and noticed this great photo op, so I took it.
We ended the evening with a fabulous meal at Annies Steak House on 17th St.. Annies is the oldest gay community restaurant in DC. Go here to read the wonderful history about the place: http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=2012
We recommend a meal there if you ever visit the neighborhood.
CHEERS!
Oh, dear..........it's a Jenni sandwich :o)
Our time in DC was fabulous. Hopefully, we will still be calling that big house on Pennsylvania Avenue the 'Black House' when next we visit. :o)
Back to home improvement in the next post.
