was a disappointment. Now granted, it was in a different location due to the drought we're having here (Civic Center instead of Piedmont Park). I got there later than I'd planned (I'm usually there by 10AM, didn't get there until after 11 this time). Some booths were still being set up!! Because of the layout of the land, it was entirely different than what I'd gotten used to at Piedmont Park (where it goes in a circle around the lake there). Some of the exhibitors were indoors, which was good. This included the AIDS Memorial Quilt and it turned out to be a good thing when the skies opened up for about 15 minutes.

It seemed as if attendance was way down from last year. It may be because of the change in location and date (last year this happened a week or two earlier). Independence Day is probably not the best time to hold pride if Independence Day is on a Friday. People will head out of town or do something else instead.

Maybe because of the lack of attendance, one thing I'd gotten used to was seeing the semi-naked men showing off their buffed-out bods. Well, I didn't see any of that this year, at least the "buffed-out" part. I think I saw one person who was wearing less than a t-shirt and pants, and he was distributing a magazine, so he was the "attention getter," and his body was definitely not buffed. He looked like he was 5'10 and 110 pounds or so.

Before anyone comments, remember: I do not do the parade on Sunday. I marched in one back in Los Angeles back in 1995 or so, and what I've realized is that Gay Pride shouldn't be about the parade because it shows gay-dom at its sleaziest when the bars and other organizations parade out the skinniest twinkies wearing as little as possible. Yes, we celebrate the male body (and I'm guessing the lesbians celebrate the female body, but not in the same way), but we're not all 20 years young, lithe and ready to party, etc., all night. The parade should show more of the real gays, ones who have actually made contributions, and yes, I do know that they are out there, but it seems that most of the groups bring out the "eye candy" instead of the real people. One thing having the "eye candy" out there does is perpetuate the stereotype that gays are all wanting to do drugs, booze and sex 24/7/365, and that feeds into the hate and bigotry, etc., that we see coming out of certain sectors of society.

I didn't see the so-called "christians" until I was leaving, and they weren't even there en masse. There were, what, four of them? I thought, "How pitiful." But then, maybe it was a good thing there were only four of them. There were also counter-protestors at another entrance to the festival whose signs were more heartfelt and seemed more real (because the bashers were using these HUGE signs which had been professionally prepared, and the supporters' signs were hand made and said a lot more in a lot less).

Tags: atlanta pride, pride festival
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