The Festival itself was a street fair taking up four city blocks on Central in St. Petersburg with vendor booths from every imaginable organization; banks, political parties, doctors, lawyers, artists, knick-knacks, posters, and even a celebrity or two. Margaret O'Brien, who played Judy Garland's little sister Tootie in Meet Me In St. Louis, was there, still with that mischievious grin of hers, signing autographed pictures of her and Judy. (I took over thirty pictures. Here are a few snapshots.)The crowd was a cross-section of America. There were moms and dads, dads and dads, moms and moms, grandparents pushing strollers, teenagers on skateboards, folks in wheelchairs, rich, poor, all races, all creeds, all types, and from every occupation. It was as American as you can get with a good-natured atmosphere of a carefree summer day that would fit in any Norman Rockwell painting.
The parade came off without a hitch. There were floats from civic organizations, churches, bars, restaurants, and convertibles (including some nice classics) with politicians and local celebrities. The floats were manned (and womened) by enthusiastic folk who tossed Mardi Gras beads, candies, bags of goodies, and even on occasion playfully ran along and kissed the members of the crowd. The parade ended with the streaming of the rainbow flag that stretched the entire length of the parade route.
The only disruption, if you can call it that, was a straggly bunch of dyspeptic-looking Jesus-shouters protesting the event and the parade. They came along after, with their crudely hand-painted signs and bullhorns shouting dire threats of hellfire and damnation. If they thought they could effect the event or the mood of the day, they were sorely mistaken. The crowd greeting them with good-natured derision and catcalls, and many couples in the crowd marched along side them holding hands and occasionally kissing. The protesters, each one looking like they could use a high colonic, were stony-faced as they made their way down the street and back again. They were accompanied by several St. Petersburg police officers who looked both bored and pissed (makes you wonder how they drew this sad protective duty), but from what I saw, there was no need for protection from this crowd, whose attitude seemed to be live and let live...something these poor misguided people were not willing to afford to their fellow man, or even their fellow Christians. Some of the largest contingents of marchers were representatives of gay-friendly churches, including Catholics, Epsicopalians, evangelicals, and non-demoninational, along with the expected reprsentatives of the Metropolitan Community Church and the Unitarians. Being gay doesn't mean you can't be a person of faith; in fact, a lot of gay people find comfort in their affiliation with a faith community.
I've been to several different Gay Pride events throughout the country, and what struck me the most was how much this had in common with the ones in Santa Fe or Albuquerque or Ann Arbor or Toledo or Denver. Just a lot of people having a good time and united by something that isn't any different than the Irish festival I went to last year here in Coral Gables or the Greek Festival in Detroit: a sense of belonging and of community, and a shared experience through good times and bad times as members of a family and as citizens of a country.
After watching this parade, I wondered why the Republicans weren't there. Yes, there were plenty of Democratic candidates or their representatives in the parade; after all, we have a primary coming up. But why don't the Republicans see this as a part of their constituency? Here you have one of the most mainstream-looking demographics in the country; a group that knows no boundary of economics, ethnicity, culture, faith, nationality, or any of the yardsticks which politicians use to gauge the mood of the country. The gay community isn't just in San Francisco, Key West, Provincetown, Fire Island, or Saugatuck. It's in Longmont, Evansville, Little Rock, Roanoke, and every city or town or village in between. What more could you ask for in reaching out to a large segment of our society, and what brainless twit put it into the heads of the Republicans that shunning and demonizing the GLBT community was a good idea? Can't they see that the issues that matter to everyone -- security, a good economy, good schools, health care -- are issues that effect the gay community as well? We are parents, teachers, bankers, lawyers, service people, laborers, and we are a part of every family -- even that of ignorant tightasses, like a certain senator in Oklahoma.
Oh, well...as long as they're in the thrall of the Religious Reich, the Republicans are ignoring a lot of people who contribute to America in more ways than they can possibly imagine, and all because of fear, superstition, and the fact that it's politically expedient to make a demon out of something than try to bring them into the family.
It's their loss. They're missing out on a fabulous part of America.
(PS: If the placement of the pictures juxtaposed with the text looks odd, blame your browser, not me. I set it up in Firefox, and it looks fine there; the text runs down the right side of the column of photos very nicely. On IE it doesn't. Feh.)
