Loud, Proud, and Dancing Like Crazy
Whoa! Somehow the weekend is racing towards me, and I haven't even caught up from the last one! If you're like me, a member of the technologically co-dependent generation, you don't quite feel ready to move into the future until the recent past is uploaded.
Sidewalk Art, Dolores Street
Last weekend was Pride in San Francisco, the biggest celebration in the whole world of the awesomeness that is the gay/lesbian/bi-sexual/tran-sexual community. Gay folks may be more present than ever before in the media and American consciousness, but (as I often have to remind people), it is seldom easy in our culture to grow up gay. There is still so much shame and fear around the expression of different sexualities, if not the experience of downright social ostracization and violence.
You might wonder why I am standing on my soap box in my fashion blog to tell you something you already know, but there is still an incredible amount of ignorance around this subject. In my small town the "cool" post-person raised is eyebrows sky-high when I told him where I was off to for the weekend, and even in the Bay Area I have known of people who have been beaten up, had rotting veggies thrown at them, etc., just for being "queer". So many of my friends are gay/lesbian, and I feel very strongly that they deserve all the rights afforded to "straight" people. This is not just a theory, it is a conviction that comes from life experience-- try counseling a dear friend who, as a lesbian mother, lost her child when her wife left her, because gay marriage isn't legal in California and she had no legal custody. I could really go on. But let's talk celebrating!
Here I am at The Roxie on 16th Street... my friends Kymmie and Denah made a film (with me in it) called Devil's Dairymaid, which showed at the prestigious Frameline Gay/Lesbian/Trans-gender film festival, as part of the experimental film shorts program.
There's (left to right) Inbar, Chris, and Jessie, and Amy; thanks to everyone who came out and made it a full house!!! You cheered so loud for me and that butter churn... gotta love it.
Me and my dear friend Armelle, who came down from Oregon to visit with me and our mutual friend Terese-- here we are waiting for the 24 Divisadero!
My friends have the cutest kids...
The girls reunited: me, Terese, and Armelle!
Andy from the SF band LSD and the Search for God (I can feel my father's comment coming here- I dunno Dad, you're going to have to ask Andy yourself!), Chris, and me... musical buddies 4 ever!
The Dyke March!
Ladies...
Rockers! These are my friends who play in the all-girl SF band Excuses for Skipping. They rocked the whole parade as it marched by!
For those of you who want to see it in action, here's a video snippet from their amazing cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean!:
Speaking of which, Michael Jackson is not a passing fancy in my friend Linda (the lead singer of Excuses)'s house. Here he is on the bathroom mirror, where he has been for years:
...and on the door to her room:
I love San Francisco. Where else do you find a kite-making camp? Hello? Oh, it's a gay olde towne! (-: