Gay Pride 2012

            I found that $20 from several weeks ago, as I was cleaning out my mail basket. Gee, I found everything I needed plus that $20.  I marvel that when I was a college student in Boulder, my grocery expenses were $20 for the week. Probably my mother sent me $100 for the month.  Michael and Birdie and Sam and I would recycle empty coke bottles so we could go have a chewy steak on a Sunday night up on the Boulder Hill, or perhaps a hamburger, fries and  beer at the Sink.  Which goes to say that $20 seems to be equivalent to $5 back in 1970 terms, unless of course you frequent the dollar store, or SF’s Daiso, where everything and anything goes for $1.50.  (That place is better than Ross! And I will happily escort you there on your next SF excursion.)

             It is the Fourth. The sun shines beautifully in Colma. (Which was sadly non-existent for my grandson’s five day visit over the previous weekend.)  Soon I will venture into the gaiety of this holiday, San Francisco style.  I keep hoping the clear weather will prevail, so I can watch fireworks on this side of the Bay. Oakland is always clearer and warmer.

            I want to speak about the Pride Parade, 2012, San Francisco.  In 1973, perhaps ’74, I marched with my gal friends in the Gay Parade in NYC, which was four or five years after Stonewall. In the 1969 era gays who marched wore sunglasses and quite possibly suits (!).  Later we marched because it was the right thing to do.  We were proud. We wanted to make a statement. It was a bit scary, but it was good.

            Saturday I ventured over to the Mission where ‘Dykes on Bikes’ had their late afternoon precursor to Sunday’s events. I missed the opening, where there must’ve been a lot of motorcycles, and I joined the demonstration midway through. It was reminiscent – though more open – of that seventy’s era.  I walked behind two young, very lovely gals, bare breasted, who had taped their nips with gold tape in an X design.  Oh for the days my boobs stood so erect!  Many women on the side rose signs above their heads which read, “Flash your tits”. There were a lot of women in this parade. But it was nothing in comparison to the main event during Sunday’s parade.

 During the 2012 parade, there were women everywhere. One editorial ventured that all the young teenage girls had come out in their rainbow voile tutus, just because. Yes, seemed there were more women than men, but maybe that was because all the guys were in the streets. I could hardly get near the parade to see anything.  I watched a lot of it on local PBS station later that night – after the Gay Pride awards, which also had local TV coverage for two hours.  This event’s turnout definitely eclipsed St. Paddy’s Day in SF, and in San Francisco, that is going a long way.  The St. Paddy’s Parade didn’t seem to have that corporate buy in, which was much more a Union event this year. - So what? Irish people don’t buy as much as gays these days?  Chase had a float. Macy’s passed out fans that read ‘Pride and Joy”. Chipotle sponsored another float.  Virgin Air even! (And that’s going a long way in a gay parade) Let’s be in style. Glitter and be gay.

I am glad that there is that kind of recognition of the gay community. And in another way, it made me sick – because of the pandering for the dollar, which is so endemic in our culture.  I wonder if those young teenagers are aware?

In SF I encountered a few – not a lot, but a few, naked fellows, who sported nothing but a cock ring.  I would add that this past week, I was on the SF embarcadero and encountered half a dozen fellows, bicyclists, in the same birthday suit plus cock ring attire, (Is the cock ring work like a jock strap when you are on a bike?) who were resting and sunning themselves in similar garb. No police were there to harass them, just another – obviously straight – cyclist who cried out with a lot of aggravation, “For God sakes, save that for someplace else, won’t you?”  My daughter and granddaughter were sorry to have missed it.

Life in San Francisco is so whimsical, in some ways. The color of the houses, the mix of all the peoples. A lightheartedness prevails, but it is still one of the most expensive places to live in the USA and one that is driven by economics, technologically driven these days.   In the end of course we must look to our hearts and discount the packaging around it.  Long live love. And if it’s only sex, may it be safe!