SF gay pride event celebrates 40th anniversary

Associated Press ^ | June 27, 2010 | Sudhin Thanawala

[Zakeet]

San Francisco's 40th annual gay pride weekend drew thousands to Civic Center Plaza, with even more expected Sunday for a parade, a Backstreet Boys concert and comments from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Organizers kicked off the event Saturday in front of City Hall where thousands converged as vendors sold barbecue and burritos and DJs spun tunes on a large stage.

Advocates for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community shared booths alongside corporate sponsors.

"It's part political, it's part a party," said Darryl Groom, 55, explaining the elements that brought him and his partner, Tobey Tam, 41, to San Francisco from Cape Coral, Fla.

San Francisco's gay pride festivities have come a long way since the first parade in 1970, as has the LGBT movement, organizers and historians say.

The first pride parade had about 150 to 200 people, said Gerard Koskovich of the GLBT Historical Society.

[Snip]

Today, the march attracts tens of thousands of people, and a growing number of those are not in the LGBT community, Koskovich said.

[Snip]

This year, a prerecorded address will be delivered by Pelosi and The Backstreet Boys will perform.

[Zakeet]

[billorites]

When I have a brand new hairdo
With my eyelashes all in curl,
I float as the clouds on air do,
I enjoy being a girl!

[dfwgator]

a Backstreet Boys concert

Don't the fags have it bad enough already, now they have to endure that?

[JimRed]

Pride in perverse behavior? Unbelievable.

[svcw]

I asked a homosexual guy once “if you want to be perceived as just another life style choice and no different than heterosexuals except how you have sex, what is there to be proud of?”
That day I must have had lobsters growing out of my ears, as this fellow just walked away mumbling.

[MarineBrat]

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

This is the world we now live in:

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 1, 2009

and he did it again in 2010 !!!

---

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-LGBT-Pride-Month/

Amazing, don’t you think???

And your taxes are paying for the web site too !!!!!!!!!!!

[ETL]

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yff35ck&va=gay+pride&sz=all

[ETL]

[silverleaf]

Look at the crowd of stupid voyeurs ...
this is no “celebration” - it is public porn

[ReleaseTheHounds]

This year we’ve “celebrated” the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day and now we’re celebrating the 40th Anniversary of SF’s Gay Pride event. It really makes you wonder what the heck was going on in 1970... I also have to acknowledge that was the year of my college graduation, so I know the craziness that was overtaking most US college campuses that spring. I must admit to shaking my head at what my generation has wrought on this country and its future.

[TwelveOfTwenty]

So we’re supposed to be tolerant of a naked guy that is about to ride by children leaning up against the fence? Sickening!!!

[They'reGone2000]

Obie: DANG! I wish I was in San Francisco.

[little jeremiah]

Placemark.

[MonicaG]

I saw that *ss in the Bay-2-Breakers.

[fwdude]

Used to be a crime in a sane, civilized country.