Pride Not Prejudice

In the last week of June, 10's of millions of people around the world stand up and say no to homophobia. It is at this time of year in order to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, in which gay people on Christopher St. in Greenwich Village for the first time fought back against homophobic police brutality.

For reference's sake: Largest Pride event in Europe: Christopher St. Day Parade in Köln/Cologne (1,000,000+); Largest in North America: Pride in San Francisco (1,000,000+); Largest in the world: Parada do Orgulho GLBT de Sao Paolo (3,500,000). (Oh, and Phoenix has one too in April at Steele Indian School Park and a parade along 3rd St.) Moscow's and Belgrade's festivals have been banned due to violence.

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of John Edwards, was the keynote speaker at a breakfast to kick off this year's Pride festival in San Francisco. She came out in full support of gay marriage. Moreso even than her husband. This is monumental. This is the first time a major candidate or major candidate's spouse has ever supported marriage equality. Bravo. Of course, Bloomberg participated in New York....

Yesterday was one of the best days I've had in a long time. Agnieszka came over, dressed in white with a self-made rainbow flag taped to her dress. We went down the hill through the Tenderloin to Market St. As we got close, we could hear the crowd. We arrived at Market and Jones and we found a spot behind a gay couple that had made the journey from Dallas for the parade. We started watching, and this, not in the actual order it happened, is what we saw.

There were the obvious characters present: men, women, transgender and third-gender people, etc. dressed in all types of colorful and/or leather costumes, which ran the gammut from extravagant to er, um, minimalist. A few men skated by on rollerblades naked.

Then, of course, there were the politicians: Gavin Newsom the mayor; both gay supervisors as well as three or four others from the city; the city DA; the Police Commissioner; the County Sheriff; lesbian CA State Senator Carole Migden and gay CA State Assemblyman Mark Leno; Mike Gravel, Democratic Presidential Candidate from Alaska.

There were the pet (haha) causes: PETA; Greenpeace; the Humane Society.

There were the political groups, including Ramsey Clark's A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition with a float which included a Cheney and a Bush in a cage snarling at the crowds. The caption read: STOP WOMEN-HATING, THEOCRATIC, FASCIST HOMOPHOBES. Several groups held signs reading: IMPEACH!

There was the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and also the Latinos de Ambiente waving flags of all spanish-speaking countries.

But the most interesting parts were the groups you would never expect: groups of trash collectors; police cars flying the rainbow flag and hundreds of policemen and policewomen holding the hands of their gay and lesbian partners; countless companies or product-lines including Tylenol, Macy's, Google, Wells Fargo, the San Francisco Chronicle, Delta Airlines, Comcast, AAA and Diet Pepsi all had floats. AND THE CHURCHES: Evangelicals for Gay Rights; Unitarian Universalists; Methodists; Reform and Orthodox Jews; and the Catholics. A line of Catholic Priests waved gay flags as they traversed Market St.

The highlights that brought us all to tears were: Gays and Lesbians against Deportation; People for Equal Adoption Rights; Marriage Equality Now! This last group included a float of couples who have been denied marriage rights and the time they have been together. The most touching were two men at the crest of the float, easily in their 80s with a sign that said: "Joe and Bill. 59 years. Denied."

I'll leave the parade with the captions from some of the best signs:

-"Don't Deport Our Partners" (from the group for immigrant rights)
-"If God made you, we want you" (from the evangelicals)
-"We love our 2 gay fathers" (from 2 little 6 yr. old girls from the group for adoption equality)
-"We love our son, even if he turns out to be straight" (same group but from 2 fathers)
-"Love is not a sin" (from the Catholics)
-"Closets are for clothes" (from Carole Migden)
-"Who says God didn't create Adam and Steve?" (from the Methodists)
-"My boss knows I'm gay" (from Macy's)

After the parade, we met up with Connor and his band again and sat in front of Civic Center and watched Gay and Lesbian Hip-Hop and a gay punk band I used to listen to from Lookout! Records (Green Day's original label) called Pansy Division.

Agnieszka and I discussed throughout the day how this parade would have been viewed in Poland. She is sending pictures of the parade, including our blatant critique of Bush and the massive crowds in support of gay rights to her parents. She is proud to be here in San Francisco and I was proud to go with her and to stand next to her at the festival.

1 million or so people came from all over the world to celebrate in the de facto world capital of gay rights.

Today, I couldn't possibly be prouder to be a San Franciscan or an American.

Bob Dylan - Corrina, Corrina