The ride on the ferry into the City was windy but worth it to march in the Pride Parade in June along with a contingent of REI employees and supporters. The ferry was filled to the gills with people in rainbow shirts and an equally large contingent of folks in orange and black--there was a Giants game that day, too. The atmosphere was friendly and accepting--even among folks who found themselves in somewhat unexpected company. The Bay Area is a great place to live!
This was my first Pride parade, and I've never been to a parade or event where so many people were warm and welcoming regardless of which side of the bed you slept on. While waiting for the long line of marchers to reach our group (the parade went on for several hours), we had a chance to watch everyone from Disney dancers to Lyft floats, with plenty of unicorns in between. Unfortunately, the desire to walk away with as much swag as possible overcame us, and we ended up with a pile of rubber bracelets, parti-colored beads, stickers from everywhere and a few neon-bright nylon bags. Thank goodness for friends who can pass these items out to their children! The talk is that the parade has become much more corporate these days, and it's hard to dispute. Rubber bracelets with "Just be Yourself" on one side touted Chase Bank on the other. Nonetheless, it was a lot of happy people being friendly to a lot of other happy people. May it go on forever.
Scientists agree, all people matter (or are matter, I'm not sure which).
