Denver Pridefest 2013

June! It's the season of pride. Time for parades, sunscreen, rainbows, festivals, socializing, and celebrating the advances we've made for social justice and equality, and maybe getting laid too. For us, it was a time to celebrate with our local family.

Denver's celebration spans both Saturday and Sunday, with the parade on Sunday. Saturday we took a turn at the Leather/Kink booth, supporting their first year. At least five local groups pitched in funds to rent the space, and carried literature and information from all groups locally. Den-PAH (Denver Pups and Handlers) had a time slot, as did the Denver boys of Leather. There were other titleholders there as well. Colorado Bootblack  Erik joined Luckey and I while we spoke to the crowd and engaged people in friendly dialogue. There were many children present, and they loved the outfits they saw. "Can I have a shirt like that, mommy?" was met by "Maybe when you're older."

For about five years now, the Rocky Mountain Leather Alliance has sponsored a Leather Contingent in the Pride Parade. It started small, with less than twenty people that first year. But by the end of the parade, people had joined us out of the crowd and marched proudly with the leather folks. This year, we had about 60+ people at the start, and right in the middle of it was a bright yellow convertible with me and Luckey sitting in the back.

What a ride! We were probably going to be walking when our original red convertible was not available. That's really not an issue, but it was to our friend Shazzy. She was going to be our driver, and had her heart set on driving us down the parade route. So, she rented a car for the day. Dang, it was bright and pretty and she was a fantastic driver - didn't dump us out once! We were joined by Praxis, International Mr. Olympus Leather, who was in town for the weekend.

My good friend Brad is one of the most knowledgeable non-medical people I know concerning HIV, and one of his favorite sites to share information is The Stigma Project. When he participated in the Mr. Leather Colorado contest, Brad promised to bring a campaign to Denver to raise awareness about HIV and the stigma surrounding the virus. He named his project "Marked for Awareness" and the effort began on Sunday. He brought bright red latex body paint and foam brushes, and painted "+" "-" and "+-" symbols on volunteer's arms, legs, chests backs, foreheads, anywhere we would allow it. Then we walked the parade and spent the rest of the day with the symbols on our bodies. If anyone asked, we could discuss that they are to bring awareness to HIV and the stigma, and we encouraged people to be HIV Neutral in their attitudes. I had the "plus over minus" on my right forearm and my left bicep throughout the day, parade and all, and had several good conversations.

We had a dozen puppies following our car in the parade, with an assortment of hoods, paws, harnesses, squeaky toys, and tails. They barked and howled and enjoyed all the attention, stopping at one point for a water break by the side of the street. The car following them had fun too, because they got to hear all the comments from the people along the entire route
"Isn't that cute?", "Look at them!", "Is that a TAIL?", "OMG, I think it is a tail", "How does it stay?", "Where does it...", "Oh no it doesn't", "I bet it does - look at it move", "oh my!"

The sun was shining and the mood was upbeat along the parade route. There were only a handful of protesters in a couple of places, and the crowd either totally ignored them or carried large signs to block them. Overall, it was humbling to sit in the middle of the attention like that. There was so much love and support. I smiled and waved and made eye contact with so many people on that parade route that I had to take a long quiet lunch afterwards and soak it all in.

We walked through the fair afterwards to visit with friends and watch the people. A short rain cooled things down during lunch, so it was not as hot as previous years. We closed out the day with Beer Bust at the Denver Eagle and then headed home to rest.