Pink ’ n ‘ Pride

Yesterday was the Pink party in San Francisco. I went there with a friend of mine. First to a block party. There they nearly close one street block in total, to celebrate and drink on the street. At this point of the day it was very easy to get a parking spot for the car. Again I met very nice and friendly people. In the bar were we went in, was next to a flipper also an ATM. Very wired! After 6pm we moved on.

Pink Saturday is a street party held the Saturday night before San Francisco Pride (Gay Pride Day) in San Francisco's Castro district, attracting more than half a million people. It is all organized by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

 

A leading-edge Order of queer nuns. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI) is a charity, protest, and street performance organization that uses drag and Catholic imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirize issues of gender and morality.

 

The whole district was closed (around 10x10 blocks) and we drove several rounds till we finally got a parking space. It was very crowded. The people were celebrating on the street. One of the “Sisters” told us: “Be save!” “Oh, we will, I am German!” “I went to Berlin, I know what is going on there! Be save!” 

There were gorgeous people. Everybody was dancing, cheering, drinking and celebrating in the streets. Some in their normal clothes, some in costumes, some are in pink, some are naked. Funny thing, the naked guy was Dutch and we talked a bit. I figured out, that it is at anytime allowed to run naked to the city. They are completely tolerating this. Actually all were very impressed by his little Dutchy. There were other men also running naked around and what shall I say. The Dutch man scored.

Drinking stuff… Funny thing I drank in a bar a Heineken – “non domestic beer” is better but more expensive.

 

Later I found a empty Beck’s bottle drooling around. So the Americans like good beer. Very good to know. Their beer is tasting like water.

I met a couple of very nice people, they are all very open minded, don’t judging you by anything. They are also very interested and love to make lots of small talk

 

Till midnight we celebrated under the full moon in San Francisco, then we drove back home to prepare ourselves for the next day. 

I was laughing a lot when we got back to the car. In Germany usually the people who are interested in buying your car are putting their cards to your car window while you are not there (actually you never call them, they pay bad prices and are not very serious). Here the car window was filled by flyers of gay clubs, bars, saunas and other gay things. Very funny!

Today was the Gay Pride. The San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a parade and festival held in June each year in San Francisco to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies. 

It is one of the most famous and best-attended pride parades in the world. It is the largest parade of any sort in United States. The San Francisco Pride parade is a world-renowned LGBT pride parade. It is held on Sunday morning of the Festival. The route is usually along San Francisco's Market Street, from Beale Street to 8th Street. 

The parade starts nominally at 10:30 am, though it is hours before all the contingents are able to get onto the parade route, and the last contingent doesn't leave the parade route until 2-4 pm. The parade consists of hundreds of contingents from various groups and organizations.

 

The city was completely crowded, no parking space, we drove into public parking. There was no chance to find a free one. Most of the streets in the city were still closed.

 

Dykes on Bikes, PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), Politicians frequently participate in the parade, as a way of making themselves visible to LGBT prospective voters, Churches of many denominations, Dance clubs and LGBT-oriented entertainment businesses contribute several contingents (Google was walking, too!) and the Leather Contingent consists of lesbian, gay and pansexual leather and BDSM groups. 

It is very funny to see all the politicians sitting in their open cars and waving to the masses of people. The parade feels like a bit of Carnival and Sinterklaas. So many funny groups running around, giving you stickers, rainbow bracelets, hearts you can smash, bags and condoms. We left the parade before the end had reached us to go to the festival.

A two-day (Saturday and Sunday) festival has grown up around the Sunday morning parade. It is a collection of booths, dance stages, and vendors around the Civic Center area near San Francisco City Hall. On the Sunday of the parade, an area of the festival called Leather Alley features fetish and BDSM oriented booths and demonstrations.



Another Alley is full of kinds of different food. We took “original greek gyros” what was very overpriced for the size. It was totally crowded and all around were drooling this really crazy people, celebrating themselves and have lots of fun! And we did too!