Parade in the City - SF Gay Pride

San Francisco celebrated yet another successful Gay Pride parade on Market St. I wasn't going to see the parade but my friend Joe Tibbs was celebrating his birthday that day by setting up a tent and a spread of food on a table on the sidewalk while cheering on the parade contingents.

I had originally planned of just dropping by to greet my friend a happy birthday and maybe see a few minutes of the parade. The few minutes that I spent watching the parade, I saw a refreshing scene of a new generation of contingents. 

If you didn't know, my church Freedom in Christ used to have a float at the San Francisco Pride and I was part of what is called a Wheel Monitor for over five years. Wheel Monitors are safety monitors standing next to the float to make sure that nobody gets hurt by falling off the float.  We don't get on the float. We walk with the float.

Having been part of the parade as a contingent monitor allowed me to see the parade from a contingent's point of view. I get to see all the spectators on the entire length of the parade route - at least on one side of the route.

[read about my SF Pride in the City in 2006 here ]

[I slightly mentioned SF Pride of 2007 in my blog here ]

[Click here to see the San Francisco Pride as seen from a contingent's point of view.]

Anyway, I got to my friends' tent very late but I was able to see the last contingents. What I saw though was pretty refreshing - the floats of local tech companies like Google, Facebook and Zynga. I suddenly realized that the new generation is truly a gay-friendly generation.

This is the Google float. I was seeing the parade not as a contingent but as an spectator for the first time in many years so it was so refreshing to see these companies and their employees - whether they are gay or not - to be represented at the SF Pride.

  Facebok was represented too. They must be over a thousand people in this contingent - it was a lot of young people. I remember seeing the contingent carrying an ink stamp and stamping people with LIKE. This LIKE is just like the one in Facebook. I super LIKE what that they are a part of this.

This is Zynga, another local software gaming company. If you don't know them, maybe you know their products suchs as Farmville and Cityville. The mood was party vibe as well. I wonder if they have Pride parades as part of their Cityville game?

I must be getting old because all I saw were young and beautiful and carefree people at the parade. 

 Kudos to Facebook, Google, Zynga and the rest of the parade contingent, safety monitors and organizers. 

 ~rl