Marchers celebrate gay pri paras across the untry

Contents:

• MARCHERS CELEBRATE GAY PRI PARAS ACROSS THE UNTRY
• GAY PRI 2010
• GAY PRI
• THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG

MARCHERS CELEBRATE GAY PRI PARAS ACROSS THE UNTRY

STORY HIGHLIGHTSLGBT people and their supporters march paras large and smallMarchers mand equaly, oppose discrimatn based on sexual intyParishners om New York church march but whout bannerShootg cint mars "Pk Saturday" ftivi San Francis (CNN) -- Gay pri was on display towns and ci across the Uned Stat Sunday as gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people -- and their supporters -- marched paras large and small to mand equaly, oppose discrimatn and exprs pri who they are. The atmosphere was ftive and open, as marchers rried handma signs wh msag cludg, "Straight but not narrow-md" and reprented groups cludg the New York Gay Bloggers. The gay pri para Mneapolis, Mnota, is nsired one of the biggt events the state -- last year's para drew more than half a ln people, acrdg to CNN affiliate KARE.

Anti-gay activist attends Tw Ci gay pri ft (KARE) There were no cints related to his prence, and some participants even stopped to engage him what appeared to be iendly bate. IReport: Scen om Arkansas para But San Francis, vlence shook the cy's neighborhood perhaps most associated wh gay pri, the Castro district. When the Conservativ last had their hands on the tiller of power, none of their MPs would adm to beg homosexual, they voted agast lowerg the age of nsent for gay sex, and vented a law which ma illegal for schools to mentn thgs change: tomorrow, eight years after Alan Dunn beme the first Tory MP to e out of his own voln, Nick Herbert, the openly gay Conservative policg mister, will give a speech at Pri London about "how the Tori have e a helluva long way" that's not all.

His partment, the Home Office, has chartered a float at this year's event, which will wd s way down Oxford Street and Regent Street towards Trafalgar Square om 's theme this year is "Pat the Town Ruby Red", to mark the 40th anniversary of the creatn of the Gay Liberatn Front, which was formed after the Stonewall rts, when police clashed wh gay monstrators New Guardian n reveal that the Home Office float, officially manered by Spectm – the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr (LGBT) support group wh the partment – will be gog wh a Moul Rouge theme this, this do not mean the ln people lg the streets will tch a glimpse of Thera May a scy btier and feather boa as well as her tramark kten heels: the Home Secretary is not attendg, and anyway, the float is only for civil servants the Home Office, UK Borr Agency, Crimal Rerds Bure and Inty and Passport Service. "I'm not tellg you what I'll be wearg, " said Herbert, preferrg to talk about how serly the ernment was takg the reportg of homophobia as a hate year Spectm's effort was voted "the bt float the history of Pri", said Pl Bradley, Spectm's chair. We thk troducg progrsive legislatn [on civil partnerships, allowg gay upl to adopt and repealg Sectn 28] – often the face of Tory opposn – is what we will be judged on.

GAY PRI 2010

He has also charmed most of the LGBT groups wh the aln manifto, which said the ernment will help schools al wh homophobic bullyg, prsure other untri to support gay rights, ph for ternatnal regnn of UK civil partnerships and stop portg gay asylum seekers at risk of aln is so pro-gay that not only have they has set up a cross-ernment programme of work addrsg LGBT policy, but they have promised "addnal actn for transgenr equaly" - exactly the sort of iative the Tori ed to mock Harriet Harman for darg to suggt when she held the equali brief.

This has been road to rights1967 Sexual Offenc Act crimalis homosexual acts between two men over 21 years of age " private" England and Wal. What a strange, embarrassg thg: To live one of the gayt ci Ameri, and yet fd that this very gay cy is pable of puttg on a smoothly n, succsful gay-pri celebratn each year.

In the Seattle area, there is no shortage of people, gay and straight, eager to watch the lol gay muny put s bt, worst, and most flamboyant members on display. And of urse, the all-out war between gay factns over the para's lotn, wh the supporters of a downtown para one mp and the supporters of a Capol Hill para the other.

GAY PRI

For those terted gawkg at the ms that Pri Para planng has bee this cy, the next sectn offers a brief, weary overview of how the gay muny arrived at this absurd and somewhat shameful moment.

THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG

That's where some of the earlit gay-pri celebratns were held Seattle, and where one of the first gay bars the cy, The Double Hear, still serv beers (although no longer to a mostly gay, or even mimally gay, clientele). The days, the Hill is sometim referred to as the "gay ghetto, " most often by queers who claim to be "over" the ia of needg to nfe themselv to one neighborhood for the sake of safety, solidary, and easier sex. But the emergence of an "over " feelg—or, perhaps more accurately, a "beyond " feelg—among some gay people when to Capol Hill is the subtext of the nflict over the Pri Para.

Dpe a unter-para held on Capol Hill by disgntled supporters of "tradn" (and enuraged by some Capol Hill bar owners who see downtown celebratns as a threat to their Pri weekend e), the gay muny and straight para watchers voted wh their feet. They marched downtown huge numbers and celebrated afterward at Seattle Center, wh homos of all strip dancg the giant Seattle Center founta, a spot often thought of as the emotnal heart of this cy, and wh many participants hailg the event as the bt ever—a better lotn, a better feelg, a better embodiment of what is to be gay today. It's a patchwork of petg terts and barely rcued failur, all bbled together to a nfg weekend that is not supposed to showse gay eptu and fightg, but is stead supposed to make gay people proud, make Seattle proud to have lots of gay people, and, most of all, leave everyone at the end feelg happy and maybe dnk and hopefully pleased to have been a part of somethg that ma sense, was big, and was worthwhile.

In the se of the gay muny, which has historilly ed paras ci across Ameri to ph for acceptance and equaly unr the law, paras e wh tremendo emotnal baggage. They are an embodiment of a cy's gay muny at a given moment, and the fact that they happen at all is a ttament to how far gay Amerins have e sce the 1969 Stonewall rts.