Happy Pride!

Got back from FL just in time to dash into NYC for the March today. I love going, but Spanky's not a fan. Sometimes it is more fun than others. This year is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, so it seemed to be more of a political march and less of a parade. Some years, it is the opposite. Frankly, I appreciate the march more this way. There were more ladies, and less naked men in body glitter, and much less garish commercialization than other years. Also, a lot more older people this year. I don't know what that augers, but it was fun. I only stayed for about 2 hrs and saw about half the marchers. Here are some of my favorites (click on any of the pics to make bigger):


This was just one Stonewall float, but it seemed to be one of the first big floats and set the tone. I love the body art on those guys!


This float held the actual veterans. There was an interesting piece in NY mag recently about the riots. Very interesting. Love the LGBT history.


Gay marriage float. I should have taken this sooner, to get a better angle on the grooms on the cake, but I was feeling pretty ambivalent about it for too long. The theme of gay marriage ran through a lot of the floats and is obviously still a really important issue.


This is the Imperial Court of New York. You can read about them here. Sounds glamorous! And they've raised over a million dollars for gay-related charities and organizations. This year their float had a weird Italian-related theme, which I thought kind of took away from their main focus, because I kept thinking it was a gay Italian group until I saw the float (there were outlying marchers preceding the float).


omg, the Flaggots. I couldn't find a NY website, but this one has a lot of info. They were pretty cool.


The Gay Men's Health Crisis--GMHC. They are the oldest HIV/AIDS related organization, founded by Larry Kramer and others, and I give them money whenever they ask. They provide tons of services and I like how they're really focused on practical needs of people living with HIV/AIDS as well as education and research.


I'm really glad they're still around, but I wonder if they might want to think about publicizing a bit more. Anyway, just in case you're interested, I found them here. This could be a whole long conversation/post of its own someday.


Finally, you gotta love this guy. What a proud bear! He's out there all by himself, got his flag raised high. I really hope he's wearing sun screen and has some friends or is meeting them later.

I'm bummed that I missed the Dyke March, but my mom really loved having me down for just the few days I was there that I can't begrudge her that time with me. I love her, and I'll go over that more later. I hope everyone in NYC is having a great Pride and going out and celebrating with their sweeties or meeting lots of new people. Me, I'm sitting at home waiting for Spanky to get home from that freaking movie job so that we can snuzzle some. I've barely seen her for weeks now it seems like, and I miss her! I had to text her everything I was seeing at the March because she was working. How sad is that? I'm sure she'd have rather been with me but at least we have each other for the long haul, so one pride march more or less won't make much of a difference. Now, if only the country could get those marriage rights sorted out so I can finally get hitched, eh?