Gay pride parade – FlyingPlates

This week is really Gay week in Montréal. There was a big conference on gay rights followed by the “Outgames” with their opening ceremony, a closing one and, in between, the gay pride parade. Now, I was not going to pay money to attend the opening ceremony, but the parade was free and I had never watched it before…. I hesitated because I am not comfortable with exhibitionism and I did not want to feel uncomfortable if the costumes or behavior were too over the top. But, in the end, I decided to give it a try. It was a perfect evening, warm but not muggy. The street was lined with watchers. People of all ages and all sexual persuasions… The parade itself was noisy, colourful and fun. There was a lot of humor..and some seriousness. There was supposed to be one minute of silence at some point to honour all the people who have died because of their sexual choices, be it of illness or violence ( if they did have it, I missed it…)
There were floats sponsored by various gay organizations as well as groups on foot brandishing banners and signs. There was a group of lesbian mothers and a few minutes later, gay fathers, there was a gay jewish group and a few feet back a group of belly dancing lebanese gays, there were gay retirees and newly graduated gays, gay water sports group and gay racket sports club and through it all, elaborately dressed transvestites.
Here are a few photos…

First… two grand dames…