Houston Gay Pride 2005 and a fight for 31%
Today's Houston Gay Pride Parade is, I believe, still the only nighttime gay pride parade anywhere in North America. It's also Houston's largest annual parade of any kind.
I live three blocks from the parade route and I can see from my back window -- I'm on the second story of a condo building -- that preparations for this evening's production are underway in earnest. The police are barricading streets to vehicular traffic, the people are walking them and the neighbors are barbecuing. Here in my gay-dominated complex, the atmosphere is quite festive, especially around the pool where bare chested 20-somethings are exhibiting the beautiful bodies bestowed upon them by Providence and the 24 Hour Fitness Club.
The air is filled with smoke from the pit, the sounds of high energy music and the shrieks of children running and playing. The place is alive.
Tomorrow, pictures.
Relatedly, the Houston Chronicle reports today on the battle plan of opponents to a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, which Texans will vote on in November. The goal is not to defeat the measure statewide -- there's no chance of that -- but rather to defeat it in Houston and hold the statewide "yes" total to under 70%. That strikes me as realistic -- and smart. For as even the amendment's sponsor, Rep. Warren Chisum, concedes, "I won't think we've done a good job unless we win by a large margin, anything over 70 percent."
Very well then. I look forward to your disappointment, sir.