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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Parade, Festivities Offer a Bit of Everything for Everybody
By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
"Ladies, pull in!" shouted parade organizer Tim Johnson over the revving of about a dozen motorcycle engines, just minutes before Saturday's Gay Pride Parade was set to start.
Johnson, a member of this year's Gay Pride Committee, was trying to line up the various groups in the parking lot of the PERA Building.
Unlike its usual ranks of orderly parked cars, the lot was filled with visions of rainbows, tie-dye, glitter, Mardi Gras beads, feather boas and drag queens. T-shirts proclaiming "C'mon Out!"; "I am a gay man married to Jesus"; and "I see Queer people" were scattered throughout the crowd.
There were plenty of straight folks, too. Some who just wanted to parade their dogs insisted their canines had changed their sexuality for the day.
"They're gay," quipped Donna Bruzzese of her two collies, Daisy and Leo. Bruzzese was there with her husband, state Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, who is running for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. And Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, was there handing out Dum-Dum suckers along the parade route. But there wasn't much of a Republican presence.
The New Mexico and American flags led the parade, followed by three rainbow flags. Close behind were four yellow pedicabs holding Santa Fe's "royalty." Mayor David Coss and his wife, Carol Rose, rode in the cab powered by Santa Fe Pedicabs' Dan Koffman, decked out in a business suit for the occasion.
Santa Fe's parade is just one of many Gay Pride parades held around the country. The celebrations began in 1970 as a reaction to a riot the previous year after a New York City police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar.
This year's parades come at a time when many gay and lesbian activists are criticizing recent action, or inaction, by President Barack Obama: not addressing the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and supporting the Defense of Marriage Act, with Justice Department lawyers citing precedent cases involving pedophilia and incest.
But some at Saturday's event defended Obama. "Anything he does is better than what we have in Mississippi," said Sara Wade, who was visiting from Tupelo. And Paul Burguieres, who was staffing the Democratic Party booth, said: "His plate is full. I think it's going to take time, but he's going to get there. He's going to do a lot more than any Republican would." Linda Krauss, the internal operations director at Rainbow Visions, said: "He (Obama) has to tackle the economy, wars and health care. But at some point, the political gay community will hold his feet to the fire. As an African-American, he must understand the need for civil rights for all people."
This year, for the first time, Santa Fe's parade route led the revelers to the Railyard Park, rather than to the Plaza.
Only the western lanes of Paseo de Peralta were closed as the parade wound toward the Railyard, bringing north and south traffic to a standstill on Guadalupe. The numbers of onlookers — arms raised snapping cell phone camera shots — increased dramatically as the parade neared the Railyard.
There was no way vendors could leave the Santa Fe Farmers Market until the parade was over. "This is the busiest market this season," said Joel Daeschel of Cedar Grover Nursery, adding that he had no complaints because the Gay Pride events probably helped his sales Saturday.
Events at the Railyard Park started about midmorning Saturday and continued long after the parade, with entertainment and music onstage, and booths ranging from the Christ Lutheran Church and the Center for Inner Truth to Women's Health Services and ID sensual lubricants. Kokopelli Adventures of Gallup had brought its 25-foot-tall portable rock climbing tower, and not far from that were food booths offering everything from pizza to curly fries. And there was a group of hula-hoopers, including a shirtless man in a shocking pink short skirt, cowboy hat and green rubber boots.
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