asente@Cascade.ARPA (07/02/85)
I spent yesterday celebrating by watching the parade during the day and dancing at night, and I thought I'd report on the day for those not fortunate enough to be here. The day started out on a rather crushing note as my lover and I tried to get downtown on the Muni metro system. We finally managed to get into the third train that went by; they were all jammed to the hilt with people going to the parade. We managed to get a good position, right before traffic light for a cross street where they were letting buses go through, so most of the groups had to stop and wait a bit. The parade started off, as always, with Dykes on Bikes. The group must be growing, as I've never seen so many of them before. They just went on and on. Various political figures followed (Lady DiFi, of course, was not among them), followed by the contingents for the various AIDS groups. They got the biggest applause of the day, and I wasn't alone in being a bit teary-eyed at that point. I won't try to be inclusive, but these are some of the more memorable moments: Sistah Boom, a feminist political/samba group, really had the crowd jumping. I wanted one of the t-shirts several of them were wearing, "Samba not bomba". Both the Gay Fathers and the Lesbian Mothers groups were quite popular with the watchers. The parents OF gays and lesbians group was also warmly received. Ducks on Trucks were an amusing counterpoint to some of the more serious groups with their inflatable ducks and feather-covered truck. The Gay Men's Chorus were all dressed in cute rainbow sailor caps and had a "carry" (like a float, but the pieces were carried by the marchers) of a ship. They stopped and gave a rousing rendition of "We Sail the Ocean Blue" from HMS Pinafore. Several of the South-of-Market bars had floats liberally decorated with scantily clad mouth-watering hunks. (down, boy!) The ALGA group (Association of Lesbian & Gay Asians) had the best drag; most men look terrible in drag but several of them were even beautiful. There were many men in various degrees of drag; the most spectacular was in a costume that would have been at home in any show in Las Vegas. It had a peacock feather headdress that reached several feet in the air, and he was positively dripping with rhinestones. Another guy was dressed as a witch doctor, complete with horns, feathers, loin-cloth, and an antlered wand. Even the Foxy Lady women's wear shop in the Mission had a float (apparently THE place to go to buy outrageous clothes). The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were quite festive in their rainbow-colored habits. And the Ladies Against Women had a sizeable contingent, with their wonderful slogans: "I'd rather be ironing," "Protect the rights of the unconceived: sperm are people too," "Roses not raises," and "Suffering not sufferage." I became all choked up at a car bearing just a pillow with a tiara; it was in memory of Fat Fairy by her friends in Oakland. The watchers were almost as much fun to watch as the parade. A pair of men near us made quite a splash with their rainbow-striped hair. At one point a Chinese tourist came up and asked if this was the 4th of July parade; she didn't seem to speak enough English to understand us when we tried to explain what was going on. One woman was watching the parade bare-chested from atop a bus stop shelter. As the parade ended, the crowd poured into the street to follow it to the rally in Civic Center. The speakers claimed that there were 300,000 people there. Even given their usual penchant for exagerating, it was quite exhilirating knowing that you were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of gay people and their friends. There was the inevitable group of bible-thumpers alongside the parade route with their signs foretelling doom to us all but, other than that, nothing but goodwill from everyone. (It was interesting conjecturing about the average straight San Franciscan's response to the parade; probably something about those damn faggots blocking off traffic all day. But I digress.) After going home to rest up for a while, we went to the party at the Galleria to dance. Either people are getting tired of these events or we picked the wrong party: there were only about 300-400 people there, I'd guess. The Weather Girls performed but the music was, on the whole, not so great. We enjoyed ourselves anyway and it was nice having more than 3 square inches to dance in. The rest of the day is none of your business. -paul asente asente@Cascade.ARPA decwrl!Glacier!Cascade!asente "Unfortunately I can't think of anything witty to say here today."
rjw@ptsfc.UUCP (Rod Williams) (07/10/85)
>There were many men in various degrees of drag; the most spectacular >was in a costume that would have been at home in any show in Las Vegas. >It had a peacock feather headdress that reached several feet in the >air, and he was positively dripping with rhinestones. As I and those around me were admiring (for want of a better word) this creature, I overheard a man nearby ask his friend "What is it?". His friend, a hirsute, red-headed six-footer in a tasteful chiffon prom dress and white gloves, pondered a while and replied: "It's faaabulous....whatever it is!" -- rod williams | {ihnp4,dual}!ptsfa!ptsfc!rjw ------------------------------------------- pacific bell | san ramon | california