WARNING: Pride Ahead

Last weekend we ended up spending Saturday afternoon at the Rochester Gay Pride Parade. It's such an amazing, high-energy event, and we're always happy to be there and support our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered friends, family and colleagues (and yes, we have a nice number of each of those).

So we parked over on Park Ave., right near Jine's. As we drove down the street, we saw balloons and floats and everything else being put together. People were everywhere, and the curb was slowly filling up with spectators, and the rainbow was everywhere: flags, beads, shirts, body paintings ... the street was in bloom with color.

We grabbed chairs from the car trunk -- me, Jamie and K -- and walked down the street a bit to the park where we were meeting up with B., J., and M. We had bottled water and chilled snacks (it was caliente) and comfy chairs and great company ... and also just so happened to be across the street from some friends of the B and co. who were hosting a little cosmo party. Nice.

We had a killer vantage point on the parade and we could see the light of the parade as it started and slowly moved down the street. First up were police, fire and ambulance crews, along with reps from the City of Rochester. Bon Jour, Mayor McHotty!

Next up came the celebrity marshall, Maya. No, I have no clue who she is.

And then came our first Parade Queen and King. There a bunch of those -- overall Pride Queen and King, club queens and kings, etc. Very regal.

This year's theme was a fairy tale type thing: "Happily Ever After," in reference to the fact that NYS is now recognizing same-sex marriages from other states, countries, etc. where they are legal. This is, of course, a big step toward legalization of same-sex (legal) marriages in the state. It's a Big Deal.

In recent years an interesting trend has arisen: the inclusion of many more politicians and churches. There's a real outreach to the GLBT community by these groups during Pride, which is nice. Of course, there are more religious protesters as well, but seeing groups in the parade is always nice.

And then one of my fave personalities comes rolling by: (s)he is a drag queen, always on wheels, always with a glittering, fab flapper-type dress and wig ... and always still with full-on mustache and beard. Love it. Love. It.

And as if the Roller!Queen wasn't enough (Love. It.), the Muthers float was right behind. It truly had something for everything: half-baked oiled men, Darienne Lake (work those curves, girl!), Pandora Boxx (how DOES she always look so damn fierce?! Geez.), and another fave, Ambrosia Salad (not shown, but she is a total riot and so amazingly TALL ... particularly when wearing spiked thigh-high boots).

God, I miss my hag days. Muthers, take me away!

And this Hansel-and-Gretel thing cracked me up. How leiderhosen were suddenly major, I do not know, but ... there you have it

Fun story: whenever we're out at Muthers or TilT or Pride with B., we always call him "Mr. Rochester" since he appears to know just about *everyone* in the community. First of all, the man is like lesbian catnip. As SOON as we hit an event, he is absolutely swarmed with dykes. It kills me. THEN, as if that isn't enough, it seems like he knew someone in every group going by in the parade: people are waving, queens are calling his name, cute little twinks are bringing over candy and a quick air kiss. It's a riot. It also means I get lots of nice, shiny bead necklaces, by proxy. I'm also hoping he can talk one of the dykes on bikes into taking me for a little ride one of these years ...

But I digress.

ANYhow, this year there was a guy in the parade dressed as a BDSM frog prince ("Happily Ever After," remember?). About 5 seconds after the below photo was taken the frog broke from the parade, RAN over to B, grabbed him, hugged and kissed him, and then ran back into the parade. It was surreal. When asked later why I didn't get a picture of THAT, I could only reply that I was so shocked at B getting molested by an amphibian that I totally lost my wits. The best part, by the by, was that at the end of the parade B confided in sotto voce ,"And I still have no idea who the hell that was." Hussy.

Of course, the parade had to come to a close and so the float from TilT ended things out with a bang: blaring dance music (Pride: the only parade with a kickass soundtrack), dancing queens, kings, rainbow balloons, and a sweaty, oiled go-go dancer shaking his ... groove thang.

Happily ever after, indeed.