SAN FRAN PRIDE or MY BIG GAY iPOD

Well, today was the official PRIDE DAY in San Francisco for the LGBTQ Community --- please forgive if I forgot a letter of the ever-expanding accronym. Anyway, I didn't have such a good feeling at the start of the day. It was REALLY cloudy and was about 50 degrees. It was cold and dreary!

But, the M train arrived just as I walked up and I put on my iPod. I selected "songs" and "shuffle" --- and I had a feeling things were going to be OK when the songs that played were (and, they played in this order):

It's Gonna Be a Great Day - Barbra Streisand
Dancing Queen - ABBA
Love to Love You, Baby - Donna Summer
Do You Want to Funk? (12 inch mix) - Sylvester
Mighty Real - Sandy Bernhard
The Rose - Bette Midler
and
I'm Coming Out - Miss Diana Ross

...and then the trained pulled in to Castro station. I just knew it was going to be a great big gay day! My iPod told me so!

This was the first time I have ever attended a SF gay pride parade. And, everything I had heard was true -- good and bad. The parade NEVER ends, but I've never seen such a mass of interests represented. I mean you know you've left Boston or NYC when you see a group of people representing Anti-Male Circumcision, Gay Sanitation Workers, COLT porn stars, gay ROTC (not kidding) and just about any other thing you can think of --- was fully represented at the parade. There were so many people!

I met up with my best pal, Milford and met his friend, Mike. And my friend, Vic met up with us and brought along a life long friend of his named Jun -- who was very sweet. Great company! We strolled to the huge party/gathering in the Civic Center area and sat in the sun (yes, it did come out -- but it was still fairly cool)

Unlike Boston, there was nudity, profane activities, suspicious brownies for sale, porn stars to kiss, Peaches Anti-Christ posing for pix with fans brave enough to approach her and friendly people. So nice to have people just chat with you -- unlike what I am used to in Boston. I took lots of pix -- however my skills as a photographer are rather suspect. But, if you're interested --- just scroll down to the left column of my blog and click into my second on line photo album and you can take a look at my day! Just so no one flames me or anything ---- if you're easily offended (and I doubt that you are if you're reading my blog) skip the pix! And, the pix is are not Trix -- they are NOT for children! Nuff said!

Happy PRIDE!