Pride in Seattle

MJ and I have just returned home from the Pride Parade and Festival in downtown Seattle. It was a pretty fun morning. Neither of us had been before, so we got to see what it's all about. In a nutshell, that's community, equality, fun, and a good dose of fabulous. :-)

We got downtown about 10:30 and parked near good ol' (now defunct) Book Publishing Company, where Frank and I met lo these many years ago. MJ and I walked through Denny Park, Seattle's first park, where Frank and I announced our engagement to our coworkers of the time. Nice memories! It was raining lightly as we strolled down Westlake to the parade route, but that soon stopped, and the weather cooperated for the rest of our visit.

We met some nice folks along the parade route, a woman and her partner who were eventually joined by a man and his partner. Those two turned out to be the only men in our immediate vicinity. This meant that we heard more whooping and hollering for the attractive women in the parade than we did for the guys, but I think MJ and I found the guys the most entertaining. The more flamboyant, the better! One of our favorites was a man who wasn't even in the parade; he merely ran out to throw a donation into the big rainbow flag that was carried by at one point. But what a run he had! We cheered wildly for him, much to his amusement.

Another favorite was the guy who was wearing a gigantic hoop skirt decorated with balloons. His outfit was enhanced (and possibly endangered) by the fact that he was on ten-foot stilts! And then there was the gorgeous guy, riding shirtless on the backseat of his partner's motorcycle. And, of course, there was "Mom" Finley, doing the announcing in drag just half a block from us. He even managed a costume change at one point, but we were too far away to see how that was accomplished.

After the parade, we joined the crowd hiking down to Seattle Center for the festival (greatly scaled back after a significant financial snafu last year). We made one frantic (on my part) stop at a little bakery on 4th. I said, "Do you have a bathroom if I buy something?" Fortunately, the answer was in the affirmative! Relieved, and with croissant in hand, we rejoined the crowd. And a colorful crowd it was, too. Rainbows were everywhere, and lots of Mardi Gras beads, and people and dogs in feather boas. We saw one itty-bitty dog in a furry pink sweater terrorizing a dog three times her size.

The only "off" note in the whole day: the so-called Christian group with their signs and bullhorns telling all the gays they're going to Hell. I didn't find it very Christ-like behavior, and it was definitely in stark contrast to the six or seven mainstream church groups who marched in the parade promoting their "open and affirming" congregations. But a couple of women were doing their best to silence the hate messages by standing beneath the protest leader's soapbox, screaming at the tops of their lungs. They were doing a pretty good job of it; I'm sure they'll be quite hoarse tonight.

Anyway, it was a fun and educational day. It didn't rock me the way the Komen Walk did, but I had a good time. It's always nice to be back in Seattle. We miss living there!