So here in Chicago we had our Pride Parade yesterday and I attended, as I have for the last twenty some-odd years. My partner and I had people over for brunch and then we trooped down to watch the parade. As always it was fun, festive and inspiring. I think it's a real testament to Chicago that you can get a million plus people together and have everything go off so cleanly and orderly. Like I said we get a little over a million people who attend here in Chicago and the parade itself takes about four hours. It started off with the police, then the mayor and then the Boy Scouts. Wait a sec... yeah, the Boy Scouts. It's a real testament to the diversity of the community and frankly the deep acceptance that we enjoy here. Pretty much every local politician from the mayor on down marches: congressional reps, state reps, the attorney general, the state's attorney, the county clerk, the city clerk, most of the aldermen--heck the freakin' commissioners of the Water Reclamation District had a float! Just about every major employer, retailer or service provider in the market marches--employee groups from Boeing and Walgreens to Ford and Google. One thing that my partner and I thought was cool is that along with all the companies you would expect there were seriously about six large gay employee groups (delegations of at least 30 employees representing an internal gay employee group) from companies we had never even heard of. All the banks were there and Insurance providers, all the local television stations and radio stations have floats. The Cubs, the Blackhawks, the Bulls, the Fire all had floats and the Blackhawks brought the Stanley Cup (woohoo!). There was a gay marching band, a gay drill team, a gay cheerleading crew, gay line dancers and swing dancers, gay rugby teams, gay hockey teams, gay baseball, football and basketball leagues, a gay swim team and a gay rowing crew. There was Puerto Rican pride, Asian American pride, Brazilian pride, Israeli pride, Black pride, leather pride, bear pride, trans pride, bi pride. There were schools that marched, including three elementary schools, all the major universities. There was an interesting delegation of about twenty people holding signs identifying themselves--they were all out and they were all either the president or the provost of a local college or university. There were the churches--probably about 80 Christian churches, 3 of the largest temples and synagogues in the area and a large Buddhist delegation. All the advocacy groups--the Human Rights Campaign, Equality Illinois, Lambda Legal, the Anti-Defamation League, health and youth outreach groups, anti-animal cruelty groups. We saw two women get married on a beautiful float sponsored by Marriot--this was especially cool for me because, being from Utah, I know that the Marriots are Mormon. Yesterday in Chicago a million people took to the streets--they came with their families, friends and neighbors, they came together with their elected officials, the charities and organizations they contribute to, the companies they work for and the businesses they patronize. They all came together in the public streets to celebrate the right to be whoever you are and love whomever you will in the best way you can manage. It was orderly and colorful and festive. It was moving and inspiring. It was awesome. I hope everyone had a great Pride!
