Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Tour de Fleece... day 17

Yesterday--Monday--day 17--was a day of rest. I knitted. We met at the LGBT Center for our twice-monthly get together called "Knit and Schmooze". We enjoyed lovely knitting and lovely schmoozing, comparing notes about our experience in the big parade a few weeks ago--we marched in different contingents. I marched, as I usually do, with the LGBT Center. It's a great group. Noisy, boisterous, cheerful and fun, plus the Center has a bus that blares body moving dance music.

The parade was special this year what with NY State's passage of marriage equality legislation just a few days before. There was more cheering and exuberance from the sidelines than the usually sound decibel level of moral support. Not to mention the rapturous marchers. I started to wonder whether I should have brought ear plugs with me! (I was fine.)

I love the parade. It's a far cry from what it began as, and even far removed from my first march in '79, for sure. But I march now for several reasons: To comemmorate and celebrate the courageous people who fought back at the Stonewall Inn those many years ago--drag queens who said "No more!" (That's why we need drag queens in the parade.) I march to celebrate my own progress in being out. I march to join with my brothers and sisters in showing the world who we are--in all our diversity, and it's a beautifully diverse parade.

Here are a few pics of what it looks like from the street...

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