Homo Holiday

It was gay pride weekend here in New York… and everywhere else too, actually, but it isn't as big a deal everywhere as it is in New York. I marched in the Dyke March on Saturday, mainly because the only gay people here I know are lesbians, so if I was going to get my pride on with company, it was gonna have to be with girl company. Today I watched the much larger Pride parade, or part of it anyway, as I walked to work. Here's a "Harper's Index" style run-down:

•Best T-shirts seen at the Dyke March
1) "Hawaiian Girls Grow Nice Coconuts"
2) "Ban Republican Marriage"
3) "Vagitarian"

•Number of breasts seen during the march: 0

•Number of breasts seen immediately after the march, in the fountain in Washington Square: Way too many

•Number of times I thought to my self, "hey, that guy's kinda cute" only to realize it was a girl: Way too many

•Best T-shirt seen at the Pride parade: "Rip Taylor" with a screenprinted picture of the actor's face on it.

•Best slogan seen at the Pride parade: On a sign held by a member of the gay Asians' contingent, "Out, not take-out"

•Most surprising feature of the Pride parade:
1) the number of black and latino faces both in the parade and in the parade audience. Surprising because of how often I still hear about exclusivity in the gay community, and homophobia in the black and hispanic communities.
2) On one of the floats was a gigantic black and white picture of three buff twinks in their underwear, and looking up at it, I realized I knew one of the guys in the picture. In the, uh, biblical sense. Even though there was no-one around who knew this (not even the underwear guy, who of course was just in the picture) I suddenly felt really embarrassed.

•Most disappointing feature of the Pride parade: it may be bigger than the San Francisco parade, but for sheer spectacle, San Francisco's got New York beat.

•Most encouraging feature of the Pride parade: Seeing Bloomberg and Chuck Shumer and all the politicians running for something show up to march in the parade and suck up to the city's gay electorate.

•Number of blocks I walked against the parade before I got tired of the whole thing and went to work: 26