We’re Here, We’re Queer, Get Used to It! And Be Proud!

Every year on Gay Pride Parade Day, I wonder if I’m the only person who’s still ‘straight’ with so many proud gay ‘peacocks’ out there.

The Parade is one of my favorite events of the whole year. With experience of many years now, I’ve learned just how to maneuver the best way to see the Parade and invite a host of friends to join me. The trick is to secure a table, or several, at a café near the end of the parade as it lands and disperses into a massive party. If you don’t get there by 3 p.m., you won’t get a seat, even though the parade usually arrives about 5:30 p.m. From 3 p.m. onward, we drink and that means by the time the crowds get seriously thick, so are our brains.

This year, as was last year’s, the route ended at Place de la République. We managed to secure a line-up of tables at a café that sits high above the street which afforded a perfect view eye level to the float riders.

Over the years it seems that the Parade has changed. There were even larger crowds than in the past, although fewer floats and less costumed paraders. There were less exposed breasts (real or implanted) and buttocks (mostly men’s). All in all, my guess is that ‘gay’ is so mainstream now that there simply isn’t the need to be so extreme, but that there are more people, both gay and straight, who are out in support of the human right to love whomever you wish to love.

Gay Pride took place worldwide, jump-started by the recent Supreme Court ruling declaring same-sex marriages legal in all 50 U.S. States, making it the 21st country to approve the freedom to marry whomever you wish. (See freedomtomarry.org for a complete list and map) The U.S. will never be the same as a result of this historic decision.

The Huffington Post says there are eight ways same-sex marriage is good for the economy: it helps curb the deficit, boosts tax revenues, alleviates payroll headaches, cuts government spending on welfare, promotes weddings and therefore spending and improves the ease of hiring top applicants, among other reasons. If you’ve ever been to a gay wedding, then you might guess that’s at the top of the eight reasons! (Wish I were a gay wedding planner right about now!)

Meanwhile, Gay Pride was not without conflict or controversy. CNN’s Lucy Pawle spotted an ISIS flag only to discover it was made up of butt plugs, dildos and other sex toys! She’s now got her ‘tail between her legs’ as CNN removed the video from its Website about as fast as it went up. That will teach us all to not believe the press and I’m sure CNN is seriously embarrassed by the ‘faux pas.’

In San Francisco, gunshots sent the gay crowds running in their high heels. One man was hit by a bullet, but it didn’t seem to be related to Gay Pride — just an argument among men with way too much testosterone.

And in Turkey, pepper spray by police managed to make a crying mess of Gay Pride claiming the march was unauthorized by the government…as if that’s really going to stop the trend from straight to gay or pink. The government is paranoid about the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) power — as they should, based on what’s taking place worldwide on the subject of equality, rights and unbiased love.

“We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” was the chant. I’ve been used to it for more years than I can count. Are you?

A la prochaine,

Adrian Leeds
The Adrian Leeds Group

(with niece, Shari Linnick. Photo by Lisa Anselmo)

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