Front Row Seats for the Gay Pride Parade

I was completely amazed at the turn out at the parade... they'll probably say something about it tonight on the news... and they always seem to down-play the amount (the white man keeping us down)... but I'd venture to guess that there had to be at least 30k people there today.  In comparison to Columbus' 150k, it's nothing... but considering that I marched in the parade in the mid-90's with probably a 5k showing, this is truly amazing.  A few years back, the holding area after the parade was only a block or two of Liberty Avenue... but this year, we spanned 5 city blocks, filled with people, booths and food purveyors.  I was supposed to ride on the Roseland float, but I decided to just sit on the sidelines and watch the parade go by.  I'm not a weepy type of person, but I was welling up all day long... a deep sense of pride was apparent, from every organized work-place group (Macy's, Mellon, UPMC, et. al.) to PHLAG (parents and family of gay people) to every church in the area to every social and sports group... we are everywhere... and we belong. 

Sadly, it will be the few protesters preaching bible script, the drag queens and some independent freak shows that will make it on the news, representing the day.  Not the many average, not so glittery people.  And while we all are part of the community, it doesn't help the cause sometimes.  Even with the oppressive heat and threat of rain throughout the day, we stood strong, having gone through harder things.

And while the argument has always been why we have to have a special day...the answer is, and always will be, if we enjoyed the rights that straight America gets automatically every day of the year, we wouldn't need a day of our own and I don't think anyone should begrudge us one fu@king day of the year for a whole lot of fabulousness to come through town.

I am over-stimulated and gay-ed out for a while.