The Alan Ross Gay/Lesbian Pride Parade, Dallas Texas, September 20, 2009

Since I didn't think our transvestite could walk the entire parade route, I agreed to walk beside the Alamo, which was a good thing, because two different people handed me Jello Shots while I was handing out flyers and freebies, and I couldn't hear myself think because our DJ's on top of the Alamo had AC/DC techno-mixes cranked up to ELEVEN, and most of the crowd was screaming and clapping and shouting, and it was sometimes hard to stay in line behind the gay choir and the bicyclists with Aids.

And then it got weird.


Yes, the Tarrant and Dallas County Libertarian Parties had a float in the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, a Gayand Lesbian Pride event.


Why do we do it? Well, look at this kid's "Legalize Gay" T-Shirt. He's different from most of us, and we have a government (with a president) that doesn't think he should have the same rights as everyone else. Therefore we show up.
Go here if you're still not on board with the concept.

One of the first things I saw when I got to the staging area.... I have no idea who these people were, or what they were advocating, but these men were dressed as women dressed as animals on a jungle float. Friendly people, these men dressed as women dressed as animals. They were my first sign that I was no longer in Merigold, Mississippi.


Here's our DJ platform at the front of our Alamo float, with Tim and Sue posing in front of our "Best Political Commentary" trophy from a few years ago.

Richard Forsythe (sp?) pulled the float with his pickup. Like most Libertarians, Richard's vehicle is merely a platform for the bumperstickers. Here's my favorite:

Here's our Alamo, the subject of another post from a week ago. The banner on the end says "Remember The Rainbow Lounge". A couple of months ago, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission raided The Rainbow Lounge, a gay nightclub, apparently just for the hell of it. People were injured. Nobody could really explain the purpose of the raid. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Agents got fired.

Here are our DJ's, who did a great job considering their equipment was mounted 10 feet above a moving ranch trailer.

These lovely ladies are Divine and Linda. During the regular work week, Divine's name is John. Divine/John added some street cred to the top of our float.

These ladies are Spokesmodels for a fashion line called Oscar Somethingoranother. I don't remember.

These ladies are Spokesmodels for Harley-Davidson.

This is the top of the Turtle Creek Chorale float. The lady on top is riding in a large green shoe. Someone told me that they auctioned off the chance to ride in the shoe during the parade.

Here's the rest of their float:

Here's Channel 33's float, which featured on-air personality Rebecca Miller, a bunch of guys dancing in Speedos, and the song "It's Raining Men". It featured that song for about 3 hours. Rebecca Miller smiled, under those circumstances, for 3 hours. Amazing.

Here's some more (a lot more, if you look carefully) of the jungle float.

And then we got rolling. Every float's sound system was cranked to the max, people were applauding and cheering, and neighborhood kids were going nuts trying to collect all the freebies.

Go to TheBallOfLight.com It's an art project for The Burning Man Festival.

I don't know why we didn't think of this. Large people on an I-beam SeeSaw.

More crowd. I think the parade route was about a mile long.

The parade ended here, where about 100 businesses had booths and giveaway stations set up.

This lady saw me taking pictures, and she insisted on being included. This is provided as a public service.

Here's Robert E. Lee, at the end of the parade route. Yes, this is what The Boys In Gray were fighting for.

This thing was FUN. It took it a while to get rolling, but the wait was worth it. There were probably 15,000 - 20,000 spectators and participants, and I didn't see a single altercation. Dallas PD did a great job. The organizers did a great job. Much thanks to Spivey, Richard, John F., and others who built the float.