Yet Another Prideful Weekend.....

The Original B-Girlz

Well another Pride Weekend came and went, and I must say, I had a great time. I saw all the people I wanted to see, I didn't melt in the heat, and I didn't get sick. I didn't get any nooky either, but then again, I wasn't actually looking for any. I went dancing a few times, hung out on the street with my friends, had a heart-t0-heart with Scotty's dog Tiegan, ate lots of ice-cream, drank quite a bit of beer (the beer gardens served Keith's this year! Yaaaay!!) gave Dave and Victor a needle-ingly hard time, and didn't get sunburned. Ran into bunches of people on Saturday, a day before the parade actually happened, and hung out with Victor and Scotty and ran into James A., and his posse, and then Scotty and I went to Buddies later that night and danced the night away, before he ran into his 21 year old inamorata, and then I, yawn, pleaded excessive exhaustion and slipped away to home. I got up the next day, cleaned up and headed down to the beer gardens at around 12:30. It didn't open til one, so I didn't have too long to wait. Then Doug and Steve showed up and Ron and Chris, and we all just hung out under the trees, and then I ran into Dave and Greg, and then eventually Stephanie and Bart were there, and Stephanie's charming friend Kate, and we all just sat around, relaxed, chatted and tried to circumvent fiendishly long lineups. I ran into my old roommate Thad, who hasn't physically changed an iota in fourteen years, the bastard, introduced him to Doug ("Go ahead, kiss him, he's not shy!") and then Stephanie hauled me off to Victor's before I incited anybody else into more trouble. Victor had a lovely table of food all spread out, which was a godsend after all that beer and no real food to speak of all day. Then we all went back out walking in the street at around 9:30, and ran into Clinton and his bleached blond hair, and then Sheila, (sp?) V., and a few others went back to Buddies to do some more dancing. There we ran into a fling of Victor's, an intense, but very handsome and serious young actor with blazing eyes. Evidently, he's a comic. I'm not surprised. Most good comics were all very serious people. We all left at around 1:00 or so, and then I walked Sheila over to Parliament before heading back home to bed. Monday I took off to recover and sleep. Thank God.

In retrospect, I know its kind of chic for some people (gay, if you can believe it) to pooh-pooh the idea of a gay pride parade, but you know, nobody's ever been shot at this thing (a claim not many festivals of this size can claim) nor have any planes crashed during it, in fact, aside from the usual number of people fainting from the heat, I don't remember hearing anything of any fatalities occurring during Pride, ever. Which isn't a bad thing. A parade without a body count is generally good, I'd say.

Anyway for all of the gay people griping about it, I understand their logic, if I don't necessarily agree with it. They argue that it marginalizes us, keeps from fitting into the fabric of society. Well, if society is still arguing about whether or not we should fit in anyway (re-opening the marriage debate should be clear proof of that) then I say, "the hell with fitting in, and while we're at it, let's have a party!"

Look at it this way; if the powers that be had vetoed the whole thing, and raised a stink like they did in Moscow recently, and forbidden any kind of parade at all, we'd all be up in arms and furious that we couldn't have it. My figuring is; if you don't want to be a part of it, don't go. Stay home and garden. The rest of us will have fun.

So while we can have it, and enjoy it, let's just be grateful that we're living in a country that for now lets us celebrate who we are, in all of our diversity. Don't forget, it could just as easily be the other way around. I imagine that if Harper and the rest of the minority gov't feds had their way, it soon would be. Which reminds me, I must remember to bring a camera next year. If things keep going the way they've been going, heaven only knows how many more of these we'll get to have.