And for our San Francisco Finale, a Parade

By Sunday morning, June 29th, we knew that Brian was headed to Australia that night, and that I was flying home solo. Brian had one more conference call at 6 AM, then we read the Sunday papers and drank a lot of the hotel’s free coffee. Fully caffeinated, we poked around for a place to eat breakfast. The hotel’s restaurant didn’t do it for us, the line at Dottie’s was too long, as were all the lines at all the restaurants. We were still a little full from Saturday night’s return visit to Zuni, so we skipped breakfast and headed to Market Street. (Then went to a terribly posh and semi-extravagant dinner at Asia de Cuba that night.)

It was, of course, time for 2008 San Francisco’s Pride Parade. (official title: the 2008 San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Parade) The title alone should give you an idea of the size, scope, length, and the multitudes and politics involved, (e.g. from my count there were 17 grand marshals). The parade has been an annual event since 1970, the year after Stonewall, and it probably runs about as smoothly as it did then. But it is a lot of fun.There were reportedly over 200 contingents in the parade. If you’ve never been to a Pride parade, it always begins with Dykes on Bykes. Now I’ve seen these grrls in New York, and we had a posse in Seattle, but this group blew them all away and could have been a parade all by themselves. This year, thanks to the California Supreme Court ruling, there were a few bykers dressed in full bridal drag. The noise is fantastic, the bykes are amazing and the ladies do their very best to make everyone revved up for the parade. It worked on us.

After the motorcycles there was the first of a few too many long pauses. I wouldn’t want the job of organizing all of the organizations involved in the contingency, but I wish that someone would do it just a little better. The parade started in dribs and then drabs and I couldn’t help feeling like I was being teased. Finally another group appeared, then a pause, then another group, another longer lull and then, finally everyone started to arrive en masse not just en mess.

But every group that did arrive got cheers and applause from the mixed crowds massed on the curb. There were cheer squads and marching bands. There were community groups and community leaders. There were even corporate floats from Google and Levi’s and Kaiser Permanente and even Macy’s. We saw the team of attorneys who took the cases to court that led to the Supreme Court decision that allows same sex couples to legally wed in California, when the last time YOU heard applause for a group of lawyers?

There was a lot of happiness and there were the contingents that we cheered, even though they made us a little weepy. The kids proudly marching with their two moms or two dads were always worthy of damp eyed encouragement, as were elder members of the community, some in chairs, some on buses, some slowly walking the long route on elder legs. All the broadly smiling couples carrying signs reading “just engaged”, “just married”, or “finally legal after 30 years”, got their share of whoops, roars and acclamation. But the group that always gets to me, even when that group is small and brave is PFLAG, the parents, family and friends group. These people always make me choke up and yell the loudest. And this group was the biggest, proudest loudest happiest group of friends I’d ever seen since they started marching in 1972.

PFLAG on parade. The organization is currently involved in the Straight for Equality,
a national outreach and education project
You gotta love ‘em

Not to say the parade is all politics, causes, and emotional outbursts. Far from it. This group is known for their wicked sense of humor and general audaciousness, right? Well we had plenty of that. Starting out with the mistress of impudent charm and sassy class, the imp with the heart of gold, Cyndi Lauper, one of his year’s Celebrity Grand Marshals, (along with Margaret Cho and Charo!)

Ms. Lauper rode in a vintage red Cadillac convertible and sported a black bustier modestly covered in a white leather suit. She sported a sequined Vegas-ian headpiece and a beaming smile, which only dimmed a little while being interviewed by the bothersome reporter who kept blocking our view.

Fun Facts: Although a known member of the other team, Ms. Lauper fully supports the community, including her gay sister, for who she wrote “True Colors”.

We also had dancers, and singers and rappers and gay and lesbian American Stratfordshire Terriers, (just don’t call them Pit Bulls!). And, thankfully, there were the cheerfully over the top groups like the Barbie Bridal Support Group and the Radical Faeries, who would always always win the best dressed contest, if only there were one.

For the little boy in me who learned to be ashamed of himself at a very young age, thanks to the lessons I quietly learned from my church, my television, my peers and even from my unknowing family, it was a good day. For the adult who is still a little too afraid to hold hands with Brian on the streets of Michigan or even consider doing what just a few too many hetero couples do in public, let alone on my television screen, I was very happy to be able to be part of the parade, even if I was just cheering from the sidewalk.

And isn’t that what Pride is all about.

- - - David

This bring our Tales of San Francisco to it’s inevitable and long awaited conclusion.
If you haven’t had enough, and I doubt that you haven’t, feel free to peruse our photo album
San Francisco 2008,
by clicking here of on the top of any page on our iWeb site.