Every year for the past dozen years my wife and I make the trek to the Long Beach Gay Pride Parade. We were there again for the 34th edition. Why do I, a heterosexual male, go to a pride parade? There are a whole bunch of reasons. My wife is bisexual and has marched in the parade. It has become a tradition where a whole bunch of friends go to a swingers party the night before in Long Beach, and then we go to a friend’s house right on the parade route. Most of all, though, I go because it is just an amazing experience.
The dramatic increase in rights for gay people is one of the great stories of the 21st century. These are people celebrating a hard won battle for their rights. It is not over, though, and we’ll discuss that more shortly.
First, a little about the parade itself. It started out with the traditional roaring of engines as the Dykes on Bikes led the parade.
Of course, there were tons of Gay Rights supporting organizations marching. It is amazing to see all of the community support. The California Highway Patrol was in the parade, and so were the Long Beach Police. Considering the long history of discrimination that used to be practiced against the gay community by the LBPD, seeing police officers openly march holding hands with their same sex partners and officers shaking hands with the gay community, it was very heartwarming.
Riding along in the parade was California State Senator Ricardo Lara, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, Congressman Alan Lowenthal, Councilwoman Suzie Price, and others.
I got a little choked up by the military families.
There were a lot of businesses who participated.
They included Bud Light, Disney, Crossfit, American Airlines, Padre (Latin Table and Craft Cocktails), Orange County Roller Derby, Smirnoff, 1043MYfm, Dr. Bronner’s, Allstate, Veronica’s Insurance, and many others.
I personally get naked with Dr. Bronner every day, as I really love their soap. Their mobile shower (above) was nothing but good clean fun.
There were all types of people. Families, gay men, transgendered, straight men and women, lesbians, and people from all walks of life celebrating freedom and equality. I saw an ancient bent over woman in a wheelchair with her family, rainbow flags jutting from her hairdo. The truth was, you usually could not tell who was gay or straight, and it really did not matter.
I went to the parade with my bisexual wife and our bisexual girlfriend. You can see her under the rainbow umbrella. This was her first gay pride parade, and she said to me “I never thought we’d have anything like this.” The parade is often very moving.
So great, all good. Victory won! We were on the side of the angels!
Not so fast. We are now living in Trump’s America, and it is frighteningly homophobic. Virtually every one of Trump’s cabinet picks is an anti-gay extremist, and it is important to understand this. In our next article, the Washington Gay Hate Parade, we put the level of hate and extremism in the Trump administration in perspective and to look at it all at once.