After a year of no pride parades, we decided that enjoying Washington D.C. pride wasn’t enough. One week after Capital Pride, we made the trek to Maryland for Baltimore Gay Pride.
This time there were no 100-year storms, just heat. It was a fun parade and a very different experience than D.C. pride.
Washington D.C. / Capital Gay Pride was last week. It was our first gay pride in over a year because we moved to D.C. last August, which is after Capitol Pride but before Dallas Pride.
D.C. Pride was alright — the parade seemed to go on for hours and the bars weren’t that much busier than a typical weekend.
We didn’t have the energy for the special parties, so we stuck to the parade and a few of the usual bars (which isn’t the worst way to do pride.)
A float at the DC Pride Parade.
The Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs recently came out with a new pride flag that adds black and brown stripes.
I am not sure whether the “More Color More Pride” is a cynical publicity stunt or a genuine attempt at inclusion.
The colors on the original pride flag designed by Gilbert Baker represented the themes of “sexuality, life, healing, sun, nature, art, harmony, and spirit.”
Creating yet another iteration of the flag doesn’t change or threaten these values, but runs the risk of making it easier for people and institutions to virtue signal a message of racial inclusiveness without doing the necessary work to make that happen. 🌈
The trip was completely spontaneous and probably ill-timed. I attempted to fly out during the storm of the century and ended up stranded at the airport for over three hours.
I looked pretty rough by the time I got out of O’hare, but nothing beat speeding through Chicago in a rented BMW while blasting Rick Ross. It would have felt completely gangster if I wasn’t giggling at myself the entire time.
The weekend was hilarious, although I am surprised by how many Minneapolis gays move to Chicago.
I felt like I was running into a former-Minnesotan at every-other-bar…
And of course… there are pictures.
Monica Beverly Hillz!
Dita Ritz. No lotion needed.
I love visiting Chicago, but I was so happy to come back to Minneapolis after the weekend.
Living in Chicago full-time would probably be too crazy, but the occasional crazy weekend with friends is perfect. I’ll be back next year!
They were unified in their horror, but mostly because they thought I was moving to some desolate, backwoods place.
They were totally thinking about Iowa.
The drive is uneventful, but pretty in its own way.
The drive was very long, and I was blasting trap music the entire way down. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my speed however, and totally got slapped with a speeding ticket by Trooper McDreamy of Bumblewood County.
By the time I passed through Waterloo I was shocked to see buildings.
People actually live here!
Iowa City is actually a rather cute college town. The city is dominated by the massive University of Iowa and has a nice downtown area. I did have a strange feeling of always being on campus though…
Oh, and it happened to be Gay Pride weekend!
The Iowa City Gay Pride parade was the saddest four minute thing.
But hey, they tried.
The silence was the strangest part of the parade – none of the cars or floats played music. It made the block-long procession feel even smaller.
This was the most extravagant float in the parade:
It’s from Studio 13, the only gay bar. Iowa’s finest.
And again, no music.
The underwhelmed crowd drifted toward the pedestrian mall after the parade ended. The mall was lined with booths but there was no music there either.
Not even the restaurants with outdoor seating had music.
As with any pride, there was a great cross-section of the community: young, old, black, white, tan, punk, prep, etc. Oh! And there were these crazies holding up anti-gay signs:
One girl decided to make her own sign and followed them around for about 20 minutes.
“Sodomy is an abominable sin” / “But it feels so good!”
This sparked another faux-protest.
There was a stage set up in the pedestrian mall. Everyone congregated there and things picked up once the performances and drag shows started.
The Iowa City drag shows were entertaining and surprisingly good, but most of the girls are from the same drag family and interchangeable.
We went to Studio 13 both nights and I was again surprised by the quality of the drag.
They also had a special guest:
Alaska Thunderfuck from Drag Race! Hiiiiii!
Studio 13 is small but just like any other gay bar – aggressive hair, strong cologne, and at least three people face-planting on the floor.
I had a lot of fun, but I’m sure the $3 long islands helped.
We ended up going to several other douchey college bars so it was a long drive home on Sunday…but I had a great time that weekend and will definitely visit Iowa again.
I think my next adventure is dancing in Des Moines!
Apparently I had a second folder of pictures of the Minneapolis Gay Pride Parade. Woops.
We have Senator Al Franken:
I am amused that Madre Jansen attended a pride parade before I did! Here are some pictures she took of the Miami Beach Gay Pride Parade 2010:
More photos after the jump!