Gay Pride Parade 2015
I attended a Gay Pride Parade several years ago, but it was very hot, the parade was extremely long, public transportation extremely overloaded, the crowds immense, and I had decided then that once was enough. But at the last moment, I decided to go once again. The weather was going to be like 75 degrees, it was an historic time to attend, and since I support rights that some have, be extended to others, it seemed a proper way to spend such a nice day for a daily wandering. Besides, by now, with all my wandering around Chicago, I know how to play the transportation card better than most.
I detest crowds on my walks, and the only exception is celebratory crowds. I like to see people happy and jovial and full of good will. It is always good theatre. While the parade can be up to 5 hours long, I knew this was out of question for me. So I figured I would go for maybe two hours and then wander around the neighborhood. I like wandering around different neighborhoods just observing people and buildings and atmosphere. This, I reckon, is boring for most people, but at my age it is just about the right speed to a pleasant outing. I always wander solo since this generates the maximum reflective mood I seek. Life is really good theatre. I repeat this often.
Planning is everything for this kind of venture. The train in from suburbia will be packed, but mine is one of the first stops, so I will get a nice upper deck single seat. The crowd on this day will be unique and colorful. Gays tend to vary as much in individuality as straight people. For whatever reason, when many gays figure out what image they wish to project, they tend to go to the extreme. A drag queen will spend half a day getting all dolled up. That seems a lot of time to spend for so many to ridicule, but they seem willing enough to pay the price. Of course most gays are not drag queens, but they often know exactly how to dress to signal their orientation. Maybe this is not surprising. A romantic advance to the wrong person could be explosive. It has always seemed a bit weird that females can spend endless situations warding off unwanted male advances but many males find this possibility from another male to be something that needs to be protected by law.
Anyway, the train ride to the city is filled with exciting chatter and is noisy, much like a train ride back out if a Chicago team wins a major contest. No one is inebriated yet, but the cheerfulness is contagious and the straight people for the most part get caught up in the happy atmosphere. Soon all the seats are taken and the aisles jam packed. The train is filled up like sardines after the first four stations so the train becomes an express and another train behind will pick up the next stations. So a local train becomes an express and we get downtown quickly. The downtown transit trains will be a real challenge. I get on a rapid transit train which is just beginning to go around the loop so I am able to get a seat right near the door. This is important, or else when one wants to get off, getting to the door might be the struggle of a lifetime. Where to best get a view of the parade is no easy problem to solve. I searched the internet for suggestions and headed off to the designated spot.
The parade is over 4 miles long, all the streets are now, not roped off, but a four foot steel meshed barrier lines both sides of the streets where the parade passes through. I guess in the past there was too much bedlam with parade viewers mingling with the parade participants. There are so many participants in the parade that one wonders who will be left to view the parade. Since each unit passing by in the parade can have anywhere’s from 50 to over 100 participants and the parade lasts for over 4 hours the number of participants must be amazing but I couldn’t find any estimate.
The excitement is amazing, most people cheer gustily for the entire parade. There are very few bands of any sort. A lot of floats but not really the quality of like the Macy Parade etc. It is simply organization after organization marching to support Gay rights. Many politicians are there, and many of them, overweight and not in shape, look like they might drop any moment, but they hang in there and keep the plastic grin in place and wave away, in part to try to cool themselves off.
My favorite are the Dykes on bikes. They sure are a tough looking bunch, most all of them quite suited to be a bouncer at a bar. They roar around on their monster bikes, and are the only ones in the parade looking grim and dead serious. I got the impression if they smiled they might fracture their face. It is hard to imagine what kind of sexual acts they prefer in bed. Some groups are rather touching, like the Proud Parents of Gays, and the Proud children of gay parents. Most every group these days attempts to be represented—the Police, the Firefighters, Colleges, teachers, individual churches, all kinds of support groups, TV stations, sport teams, and so on.
It is remarkable that a group who has spent so many years taunted, physically assaulted, ridiculed, and maligned in all sorts of ways, seem to have so little revenge and hate toward their oppressors. Many of those viewing the parade are not gay. But they get caught up in it all and cheer just as loud. Except me. I never cheer much at any kind of event. I don’t know why. I can be rooting for a team real hard, but at a game I don’t don’t do much yelling. It is just not my nature. So I stand there during the parade and smile, maybe clap a little bit, but not much since I have my walking cane. I don’t bring any food or drink since at my age I don’t want to have to go to the bathroom. Those portable toilets can have long waiting lines. But most do have tons of food and drink since the parade goes on for hours. But the atmosphere is such that friendliness is palpable. I can’t count how many beers and how much food I politely declined from even the most outlandishly dressed gays. I suppose they could have looked at me, clobbered me over the head and said; "Get out here, this is our parade".
I am going to guess that these parades will fade away in terms of attendance and excitement now that gays are getting the rights they have so desperately sought for so many years. Just about everyone is amazed how fast things turned around for gays. Ten years ago support for gay marriage would be hard to break 20%. Now the majority are for it. I can’t recall any such reversal in our own American history that took place so fast on such an ingrained prejudice. But things will likely settle down just as quickly—after all, no group ever loses rights once gained. Then these parades will lose all the tension which drives the excitement now. What other group these days can generate a parade that lasts for 4-5 hours, for four miles, with people lined up 10 deep to see it?
In the early days of these gay parades the parades were small and mostly endless fist fights as many citizens rushed to beat the hell out of them. The police, reluctantly, had to protect the marchers. I never saw any fist fights all day, never heard any shouted insults, and something seemed rather civilized, at last, about the whole thing. Live and let live has become the new vogue. At the train station coming in I saw this rugged looking guy waiting for the train. He looked out of place. I couldn’t resist going up to him and remarking “You need to go home and get properly dressed to board this train.” He shrugged, and commented, “It’s all good”. That’s real progress, but unfortunately on only one front.
Another aspect of all this deserves note. Some of the suddenly prominent lovers for the day were rather plain or poorly shaped. I watched some of these pairs cuddle up on the train, worn out from their day to be themselves, and I kind of felt it was probably difficult for them to find intimate affection and why would anyone want to deny them such a need, or make them hide it? I myself have never been one, even at an earlier age, who cared much for expressing public affection, but those that can bring themselves to do so are probably better off for it. Of course, up to a point. Trying to achieve an orgasm in public is a bit over the top. The truth is more like this: there are only a few couples who really look erotic making out in public. I mean I don’t mind Halle Berry and Brad Pitt (at a younger age) making out in front of me, but most others should tone it down in case I am trying to eat a sandwich.
One guy, there at the parade with his family, found himself faced with a parade marcher reaching out to get a high five from him. He balked at first, then managed to give him one, then turned a bit embarrassed and said to the rest of us, “Oh what the hell, why not?” That’s nice expression. All of us probably need adopt this attitude more often towards others, “oh, what the hell, why not?”
Strangely, it is organized religions which are beginning to find themselves in a real bind. More and more often they find their ‘faith based’ directives being ignored. Reason and logic are beginning to triumph over ancient scriptural passages. Lincoln kind of hit the nail on the head in this regard when he commented in his second inaugural address: “Both sides read the same Bible, and pray to the same God” when referring to a war in which one side said the Bible saw slavery as a good, and the other side said the Bible saw slavery as a wrong. The same sort of situation occurred with women’s rights. Clearly people tend to use scripture of any sort to bolster their own hostility to diversity. Times change and the attempt to bring justice to all people must trample over past practices. Humans who wrote scripture thousands of years ago lived in a different culture with limited scientific knowledge. As the evolutionary process proceeds, via God’s laws to govern the process, the gained accumulative knowledge necessitates changes to the way we think about a lot of things. If organized religions can’t adapt to changing times they will find themselves not just ignored, but having less and less membership.
After 7 miles of wandering around I stopped by my favorite Italian Restaurant and had a scrumptious meal, managed to get a good seat on the train ride home, and watched the Parade people depart the train exhausted but content with their day in the spotlight. I would guess they deserved it, and the majority population deserves a merit of honor for giving them the green light to exist with a bit of dignity. For me it was another day of good theatre.
