Portland Pride Parade
Tons of Fabulous Fun
Portland’s annual Pride Parade was on Sunday morning. Naito Parkway was packed with people dressed in amazing outfits, making the sides look like a giant rainbow kaleidoscope. Pride is one of those great things in life that I thoroughly enjoy. Being from Arizona, it is the one time that many of my LGBQT friends ca 2000 n be themselves, and I can come out to support them without worrying about being judged by the culturally naive. It is amazing that here in Portland, people are generally open about their sexuality and gender all of the time. That doesn’t make Pride NW any less of an amazing event.
The parade was a high point of the festival with countless participants. Obviously with all of the participants, I will just focus on the most memorable. The first thing that struck out to me was the humongous crowd that Nike brought to the parade. I was so excited to see such a huge local company participate in a great festival like pride. There were many gay couples, some with kids, which made me smile like I just ate a rainbow cupcake (make that twelve rainbow cupcakes). Nothing makes me happier than to see a city that truly supports every lifestyle, and let me tell you, most parts of Arizona aren’t like that. All of you Portlanders should be thankful you live in such a wonderful city!
Zipcar, the car share service, had a great group of cars and fun people waving. However, the highlight of their awesomeness was a Cher drag impersonator. Oh my gawd, was she FABULOUS. Way to go Zipcar, seriously.
There were a group of people who perform Rocky Horror Picture Show every Saturday at the Clinton Street Theatre completely dressed in character, singing Rocky Horrror songs. There were a handful of state government officials, and even Jefferson Smith and Charlie Hales were there to mingle. Jeff even did a cartwheel for the cheering crowd.
One thing that stood out to me was the numbers of religious groups in support of marriage equality in the parade. I have never seen such support for anything LGBQT related from so many different religions, and it made me realize, once again, how beautiful of a city we live in.
The parade was a riot, I had a blast, and I spent some of day in the festival enjoying all that there was to see and do.
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