Gay Pride; Seattle 2005

My girlfriend and I went to the Gay Pride parade today. I've never been. Every year, it rolls around, every year I watch the highlights on the news, every year I feel like I've missed something.

It was an amazing blend of personal and political, what should be public, properly celebrated as public, what probably should be private, also celebrated in public.

The parade traditionally begins with Dykes on Bikes: around 100 lesbians ride motorcycles of all kinds up and down Broadway; all kinds of lesbians were present: sporty lesbians, dykish lesbians, transgender lesbians, aging hippi lesbians. One women rode her bicycle, and did a damn fine job of keeping up. Considering the distance that piled up the third or fourth time the rotation passed by, I was impressed.

One older woman dropped her bike near the end of that part. She probably shouldn't have been on a motorcycle at all, and the bike she rode was definitely too big for her. Someone from the crowd wound up driving her bike off somewhere safe, with the older woman riding along.

At the end, a probably drunk gay man asked my girlfriend (who was wearing a cowboy hat and looked completely alterna-ravishing) 'who's that skinny boy you got there...' referring to me. Yep, I was checked out too.

There were lots of support groups represented, a few major sponsors whose shouldn't be trusted, but it's nice that they made an appearance (Budweiser specifically). All the usual political organizations and candidates walked, including our mayor, Greg Nickels, County Executive Ron Sims, the Socialist Party, the Progressive Party, and others I'm forgetting.

I saw two pair of bare breasts. At least two pair of tassled breasts. I saw a bare chest where breasts once had been. The Rad Dyke Plummer was there. Several boys wearing only their underwear. One group of Filipino performers were amazing, but looked miserable. Every one looked like they'd rather be anywhere than there.

Apparently next year the parade is not scheduled to run down Broadway. There is a vocal group against this change, but I can't help but think it's a good thing. Get the Pride Parade out of the magical liberal island of Capital Hill (or is it the gay ghetto?), and run it down 1st Avenue.

I haven't been to a parade in years: do they usually last for 3 hours? Do they often have pacing issues, with starts and stops and large gaps instead of even smooth flow?