Pride!

[carynb]

In spite of a terribly cranky mood Friday night & part of Saturday, I actually had a pretty great weekend. I love living in Toronto on weekends like this - the overall vibe is just so positive, y'know?

Saturday, I met up with mycrazyhair downtown, and we walked up Church Street to the booth being run by northbard and mzrowan. We then went over to watch the Dyke March, and saw tormenta in the parade, but didn't yell loud enough to get her attention. Which, we were told later, was a definite bad on our part. *g*

Then, back to the booth, where we met queenzulu along with several other people whose lj names I can't remember. We sat in the shade, we people-watched, we talked life, we talked fanfic - it was all good. Eventually, whynotsteve joined us, and we hung around a bit more. I was starting to develop some blisters from my sandals, so I wimped out and headed home around 7 pm.

M got into town fairly early Sunday, and we headed downtown to met up with mycrazyhair, whynotsteve, R & C for brunch at the HotHouse. Then, we walked back up to the parade route, and stood in the middle of huge throngs of people waiting for the parade to come by. It got a little claustrophic, but I think it was worth the wait. mycrazyhair found the crowd a bit too much, and headed back to Wellsley to find some space to breathe, though. We were near the back of the crowd, so all I could really see were the floats.

The highlights for me were the Priape float (probably the best looking men I saw all day), the guys I just got a glimpse of in full Caribana costumes (see what I mean about diversity?), the Gay Geeks (sample signs: "Willow and Tara rule!" and "Gay Geeks Rock!" ), the guy in the pink shirt dancing on top of the building across from us, and as always, the reaction to the various PFLAG contingents. I love the way the loudest cheers of the day are not for costumes, or scantily-clad men, but just these ordinary people walking down the street with signs supporting their kids/siblings/parents/friends. The emotional heart of the day, y'know?

Alas, I was too far back to get any really good pictures.

I didn't make it too the end of the parade, though. I never seem to learn, and I ended up with a little sunstroke, since I'd forgotten my hat. We found mycrazyhair to say good-bye, I borrrowed her hat, and M & I headed off to meet my uncle for dinner.

Despite the massive headache last night (wear a hat!), it was a very good day.

Comments

[whynotsteve.livejournal.com]

Glad you had fun despite the sunstroke. I definitely preferred the shade of the booth to the heatlamp-effect of watching on Yonge St.