Does your city have a pride parade?
 

For anyone traveling to San Francisco this weekend, you should know that Sunday is the annual Pride Parade.

Tell us about your city's Pride Parade.

we have one in Seattle this week-end.

The parade in NYC is such a fun day! Everyone come out to watch, and the parade is massive.

Ours (Portland Oregon) was last weekend.
Great music and happy to see how many people came out to cheer!

We have a Gay etc Pride Week - not just parade. And the Grand Marshall of this year's parade is the head of the City Council - who;s gay. The Parade is incredible, colorful and some of the groups are amazing - and amazingly clever, sarcastic and amusing.

A great celebration of our country's diversity.

ok. call me dumb. is Pride Parade always gay? i mean, i've heard of Gay Pride parades.. but when someone refers to a pride parade, does that always mean gay pride? (don't be mean, i'm just asking)

We have a Shame parade every year. Everybody marches with bags over their heads with eye holes cut out. People throw fruit...kinda weird.

It's interesting how many cities now promote gay pride and the surrounding celebrations as tourist events. Toronto and Montreal in Canada. NYC and San Francisco and Philadelphia in the U.S.

We dont need a pride parade here in Massachusetts where gay's can be legally married and be as miserable as the rest of us:))

Mike --Gay people do travel and it is also a way for cities to let people know that they accept and are proud of their diversity, which for some travelers is a selling point.

LOL FromMA

San Francisco has an annual parade officialy named "LGBT pride parade". LGBT = lesbian, gays, bisexual, transgender.

It's always on the last Sunday of June. Hotels are full, restaurants are full, we have visitors from all over the world.

My husband worked in a cafe on Market street - on the route of the parade, this is the only weekend when the owner opens this cafe on Sunday.

Interesting to see at least once. All kind of costumes and all degrees of nakedness.

Just plan accordingly - some BART stations may be closed, buses not running, or shortened routes.

I just happened to be in NYC on the day of the Pride Parade..No advance notice or anything..just happened to be there. Pretty good parade and hordes of people.

Fort Lauderdale has two--one the second weekend of March, and one the third weekend of June.

I have friends in cities that attend on a regular basis.
Where I exist, the proud people are the ones who wed wives with two legs, instead of four.

I'm sure the Pride Parade in Seattle is fun, but I don't see how it could compare to the Fremont Festival Parade, which was last weekend. That parade is led by dozens of nude bicyclists! Most are wearing surprisingly tasteful, or at least interesting, body paint that looks like a costume, only, when you really look, well, it's funny!

Last week in San Antonio...don't know how big it was and the weather was rotten.

Banned in Tampa, shame on them! Cheers for the one forward thinking County Commissioner, Kathy Castor, who was the lone dissenting vote! Boo hiss Rhonda Storms who introduced the legislation. :(

A Pride Parade, in the boring city I live in..you have to be kidding, lol. The "right wing" religious groups here would have a heart attack I do believe.

Surprising as conservative as Indianapolis is they have a Pride. It's in early June.

www.indyprideinc.com

I think LA has two- one in WeHo and one for LA? I say I think two b/c it seems like it happens more than once a year. I wanna go this weekend, if it's indeed happening!

I am proud to tell you that my city, Austin TX, is very liberal and accepting of alternate lifestyles. I am not proud to tell you that I don't know if there's a pride parade or not. :-(

This is a little off the subject, but I take pride in it so I will tell you about it. The only protest rally I ever attended was an anti-Klan rally here in Austin. The Klan members were speaking on the Texas State Capitol steps, so the gay community organized a rally where everyone made so much noise the Klan members' speeches couldn't be heard. The protestors were banging spoons on pots, honking horns, anything to make noise and drown out the ignorance coming from the Klan. The Klan got so frustrated they left early. Although I am not a gay person, I was very proud to join the gay community in this cause and I would do it again. ((Y))

P_M good for you! =D>

Hey PM,

You know Austin has to have a gay pride parade! Heck, Austin has a parade for everything. The pride parade was June 3.

The number one reason I LOVE Austin is its Tolerance!! Life sure is nicer and easier when people aren't so worried about hating this group or the other for being different. I still read the Letters to the Editors of my old local paper back in North Florida and it just pains me how intolerant some people there can be. Intolerance does nothing but breed hate and contempt.

Let's have a Tolerance Parade!!!

The term "alternative lifestyle" makes every gay person I know cringe as if they've just hear a hundred fingernails sliding down a blackboard.

There is neither anything "alternative" about being born a homosexual, nor is there a "lifestyle" that is substantially different from the norm.

Being a vegetarian, a nun with a vow a silence, a teenage goth, a gang member are lifestyles. Going to work, paying taxes, being a caring person, having an interest in civic issues, voting, enjoying loved ones - whether they be friends, family or a lover of the same sex - do not make for a "lifestyle".

JMO, but I think the term reeks of prejudices, and I'm sure most who use it don't mean it to.

Orcas--LOL! We were with another family, who had very young boys, when we didn't realize what weekend it was one year. Yes, we ended up right in the heart of that...and the boys at first were stunned...then just giggled. The husbands had a few more entertaining words:D

LoveItaly--Yup, our town is the same way! I think people would be dropping of heart attacks if they saw any of these parades.

Chicago's is this weekend.

http://www.chicagopridecalendar.org/

According to the website, about 400,000 people showed up last year. I was there too and it was a lot of un.

BlueStar, lifestyle in my definition is how one chooses to live their life.

Per Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus:
Lifestyle; behavior, conduct, habits, style of living, way of acting.

The Oxford American Dictionary and Language Guide: Lifestyle; the particular way of life of a person of a group.

Websters New International Dictionary-Second Edition. Unabridged. Last copywrited 1939: The word lifestyle is not in this dictionary. Strange!

BlueStar..we agree! For once you and I have the same thoughts. Which means do not assume that someone on this board is thinking contrary to you.

I respect all people regardless of their lifestyle, their skin color, their religion, their thinking etc. as long as they are respectable of other people. I trust that you and I can agree with that thought. Best regards.

The best Gay Parade I ever saw was in Stockhom. It ROCKED. Much more entertaining than San Francisco. (BTW I am a 70-year-old straight grandmother)

Hi jtrandolph, I am a straight grandmother also!! And I saw your other post that you worked on Mare Island. Maybe we knew some of the same people? Have a great weekend.

I did not know the term "alternative lifestyle" offended anyone, this is the first I'm hearing of that. If I have offended anyone on this board, please accept my apologies.

Isn't it interesting how the definitions of words can change? The opposite of 'straight' is crooked so maybe we should not refer to hetrosexuals as 'straight' anymore because the opposite of straight means 'twisted', 'bent' and that is certainly offensive when speaking of orientation. Anyhow, just thinking how our meaning of words can change over time......

I don't find "alternative lifestyle" as offensive, just ill-inforrmed and old fashioned. A little like calling African Americans "Negros" or "colored people." In the pantheon of offensive things you could say about gay and lesbian people, "alternative lifestyle" is pretty low on the list.

Yep, Pride weekend in Atlanta and the march is tomorrow.

Long Beach CA has one in May. LA/West Hollywood has one in June. Both are tourist attractions; the one in Long Beach is our second-most-attended event (just behind the Long Beach Grand Prix) every year.

The Long Beach parade gets tens of thousands of cheering spectators along Ocean Blvd.-- and about ten Christianist protestors condemning everyone else to Hell. No one pays them any attention, which makes them insane. It's a good time.

IN Houston there appears to be a Pride Festival and also a parade with crazy floats--it is this afternoon and evening--I hope to go and find some photo ops

We have TWO in Seattle this weekend...one on Capitol Hill and one down by Seattle Centger.

mms -

Perhaps you could start a parade in your town - open up some minds and let the light in.

There's a big one here in early June.

I dislike parades of any kind, so I've never attended.

Is it wierd to dislike parades???

Asbury Park, NJ had its 15th annual GLBTI Pride celebration the first weekend in June. That is Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgenedered/Intersexed.

Bobmrg beat me to it...

Seattle has TWO this year (long story). An evening one Saturday along Broadway on Capitol Hill and a second Sunday morning downtown along 4th Avenue.

ok. so without getting a specific response to my question.. i get it now. (I have heard them referred to as "gay pride, but not just 'pride' parades)
i would like to say to jrw in Long Beach, however, (not quite knowing what a Christianist is..) that i'm glad there were only 10.. THAT shows that not ALL Christians stand around condemning gay people to hell. Some of us have friends and family who are gay whom we love, and have no thought of condemning.