A Tourist Update (June Part II)

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Click here for pictures of Pink Saturday

Click here for pictures from SF Pride 2006

Frank asked why I would include this as part of the "Tourist Update" and all I can say is that if I was a tourist it would have been a week to remember. Here's why.

Our Participation

San Francisco in the month of June goes through a mini-transformation. Unlike Chinese New Years or some of the other major festivals, Market Street is lined with large rainbow flags that wave a subtle reminder of a prominent group in San Francisco. There are really three things that you, as a tourist, should try to experience if you are in San Francisco during the month of June: Tranny Shack, Pink Saturday and the Pride Parade & Celebration.

Tranny Shack

Tranny Shack is a weekly event held at The Stud, a bar located on the corner of 9th and Harrison St. For the truly adventurous, you could plan on dinner at Asia SF, where the hostesses are all gender illusionist's. The "girls" are so good that we had serious debate convincing Pamala that was technically being served by men. I digress. At Tranny Shack there is no question as to how these girls were brought into this world. Which raises the question ... are they trannies? Performers? or drag queens? I'm not sure how to answer, because the show starts at midnight with a rousing rendition of the Muppet Show introduction (it's time to get things started ...) and didn't end until 1:30 (yes, in the morning).

Now why would I recommend Tranny Shack for Pride when it takes place every Tuesday? Good question. Usually for Pride there is a special guest hostess and this year Lady Bunny stayed in New York and Chi Chi Larue filled in her heels and did a great job. She is known for her directoral efforts and can bring down the house with a rousing rendition of "Addicted to Port" to Robert Palmers "Addicted to Love" and commanded the stage as only a overweight man in a dress can do! And while Heklina seemed a bit subdued Diva Dan brought down the house with bad taste in his interpretation of a Missy Eliott song. FUNNY!!!! We ran into Diva Dan at the Pride celebration and a chance to get a picture (though Johnny failed to capture the fact that she is on 6 inch heels!).

Pink Saturday

Pink Saturday is really a "womyn's" day and is typically an event that really starts once the Dyke March arrives. in the Castro. The ladies start at Dolores Park and it true revolutionary style, refuse to request a permit. They, their motor bikes, accolytes and others arrive in the Castro and the party begins. The streets are blocked off and people wander and dance at any of the many outdoor stages that are built. I have to say that standing in line with a straight girl from Sacramento opened my eyes to the fact that the event is changing. Why would a straight couple travel from Sacramento and attend Pink Saturday? Then her friend stumbles out of the port-a-potty and proceeds to conduct a personal rendition of the rainbow flag of diversity by throwing up on the side of the port-a-potty wall. Frank and I decided that at this point ... it was time to go home.

PRIDE Parade & Celebration

My roommate ranks the noise of the Dykes on Bikes that start the Pride celebration (imagine 450 motorcycles racing past) as second only to the sound of the Blue Angels that visit us once a year as well! We missed the gyrls, having opted to enjoy breakfast at Squat & Gobble outdoor in the sun. Unlike last year, the weather played nice and we were appropriately sunscreened and ready to head down to the celebration.

We were not as concerned about seeing the actual parade but I did want to see Leslie Jordan on the main stage (Karen Walker's nemisis from Will & Grace). We jumped on the underground and encountered an entourage of French garb. Hmm. San Francisco. We decided to see more of the parade by walking against the progression. It helps to be over 6 feet tall! We saw our friend Joe, Lesley Jordan, Elvira (why was she in the parade?) the Barbary Coast Cloggers (see video) and walked past the Golden Gate Theater where Rent is going to open (interestingly, the movie Rent was filmed in part across the street!). People watching is always the most fun and once we got to the fundamentalists who were protesting and telling everyone that they were going to hell, we jumped underground and headed back to the Civic Center for the food (meat in a bowl!), ice cream and of course free entertainment.

The Pride Movie

Pride 101

My cousin was having a discussion with her sister and shot me an email inquiring my thoughts on Judy Garland. I wasn't entirely sure as to the motivation behind the question, so provided the following response:

Hmm. I think Judy Garland is dead. Other than that, I don't spend
much time thinking about her. I have, however, met her daughter Liza
Minelli at a CD signing and she seemed pleasant enough. Historically, the
death of Judy Garland was the last straw for some drag queens in New York
City. When the cops came to shut the bar down, the queens rose up (thus
the Stonewall Riots). This is also the reason that June is designated as
"PRIDE" month, because it was when the people rose and said 'we're not going to
take it anymore ... or something along that line.

I was not entirely satisfied with my response so I tried to conduct an informal poll and was not satisfied with the answers. So I went to Wikipedia. What follows is what I call Pride 101.

Pride - a Wikipedia Definition

In June 1969, a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people
rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. The late Miss Sylvia Rivera a transgender rights activist and founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance is credited by many as the first to actually strike back at the police and in doing so, spark the rebellion. The Stonewall riots are generally considered to be the beginning of the modern gay rights movement, as it was the first time in modern history that a significant body of LGBT people resisted arrest. First year anniversary marches organized by other groups were also held in San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1970.

Brenda Howard known as the "Mother of Pride" an early leader of the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance in the early post-Stonewall era coordinated the first month anniversary rally and then the "Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day March" on June 28, 1970 to commemorate the first year anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Howard also originated the idea for a week-long series of events around what is now known as Pride Day; this became the first of the extended annual LGBT Pride celebrations that are now held around the world.
In New York and Atlanta the annual day of celebration to commemorate the Stonewall Riot came to be called Gay Liberation Day; in San Francisco and Los Angeles it was called Gay Freedom Day. Both names spread as more and more cities and towns started holding similar celebrations.

In the 1980s there was a major cultural shift in the Stonewall Riot
commemorations. The previous loosely organised, bottom-up marches and parades
were taken over by more organised and less radical elements of the gay
community. The marches began dropping "Liberation" and "Freedom" from their
names under pressure from more conservative members of the community, replacing them with the philosophy of "Gay Pride". The Greek lambda symbol and the pink triangle which had been revolutionary symbols of the Gay Liberation Movement were tidied up and incorporated into the Gay Pride, or Pride, movement,
providing some symbolic continuity with it's more radical beginnings.

Opposition

Within the gay community, some reject the notion of gay pride, perceiving therein an undue emphasis on sexual orientation and a lack of discretion and modesty to the
detriment of either public morals or the cause of gay rights; they propose to
soften strident activism in order to better integrate into the mainstream.
Others oppose gay pride on account of its identity politics, which run in
opposition to the ideals of an Enlightened liberal democracy. Many gay people
who are not heavily liberal believe that they are being excluded and ignored in
favor of the identification of gay society with political concepts they do not
agree with. Others see it as depreciative of the identity of the individual;
they say one's sexual orientation should not be one's quintessential defining
characteristic. It is not unusual to see small groups of religious
fundamentalists protesting at gay pride events.

Pride as an acronym: People Rejoicing In Diversity Everywhere

The Rainbow Flag

Color has long played an important role in our community's expression of pride. In Victorian England, for example, the color green was associated with homosexuality. The color purple (or, more accurately, lavender) became popularized as a symbol for pride in the late 1960s - a frequent post-Stonewall catchword for the gay community was "Purple Power". And, of course, there's the pink triangle. Although it was first used in Nazi Germany to identify gay males in concentration camps, the pink triangle only received widespread use as a gay pop icon in the early 1980s. But the most colorful of our symbols is the Rainbow Flag, and its rainbow of colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple - represents the diversity of our community.

The first Rainbow Flag was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco artist, who created the flag in response to a local activist's call for the need of a community symbol. (This was before the pink triangle was popularly used as a symbol of pride.) Using the five-striped "Flag of the Race" as his inspiration, Baker designed a flag with eight stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

According to Baker, those colors represent:

pink = sexuality
red = life
orange = healing
yellow = sun
green = nature
blue = art
indigo = harmony
violet = spirit.

Baker dyed and sewed the material for the first flag himself - in the true spirit of Betsy Ross.
Baker soon approached San Francisco's Paramount Flag Company about mass producing and selling his "gay flag". Unfortunately, Baker had hand-dyed all the colors, and since the color "hot pink" was not commercially available, mass production of his eight-striped version became impossible. The flag was thus reduced to seven stripes.

A Tourist Update - June (Part I)

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June is Pride month is San Francisco. The rainbow flags wave from light poles lining the entire length of Market Street and the tourists are out in force. Not to judge ... but a little pride goes a long way and next Sunday will be full blown festivities, including the parade and the festival grounds.

This weekend we did a unique double feature for us ... two museums in two cities in one day.

The DeYoung Museum

Michelle, a friend of Frank's from work who calls me "D" (which I like), joined us for the trip. Our first stop was to head over and catch the Arts and Crafts exhibit at the DeYoung. Unfortunately, the museum is still new enough to be really popular and the exhibit is going to close soon. The displays were crowded and the baby's crying. I felt the Miller claustrophobia strike and moved at my own pace through the exhibit. Frank and Michelle took a little longer - then after a trip to the Tower we jumped back in the car and headed to Oakland.

The Oakland Museum of California

If you live on planet earth, you probably know that Disnelyand turned 50 last year. As part of the celebartion a special exhibit is on display. Behind the Magic - 50 years of Disneyland is an interesting exhibit and strangely enough had fewer children than the DeYoung. It was a fun exhibit and the audio tour, along with the pictures made for a good day.

After a quick BBQ dinner in Jack London Square we headed back across the bay.

Walla Walla Revisited - Dad's 70th Birthday

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Near Death on the bus

Ahh, public transportation, always an adventure and always unexpected. I was supposed to meet Frank down at the Embarcadero with my luggage so we could take BART to Oakland airport. I waited patiently at the corner of Webster and Sacramento. The bus arrived and I paid my $1.50 and sat down on a seat with my legs straddling my bag. I was in one of the seats that face the inside of the bus and was also near the back exit. At this point, I'm mentally checked out, trying not to focus on what I may have or have not forgotten. Then the altercation.

A man tried to enter the bus and claimed to have a transfer. He looked as if he might be one of our special citizens and the bus driver started yelling at him. He would have to produce a transfer or get off of the bus. He has tried to pull this stunt in the past. At this point, the gentleman asked if the driver would apologize if he produced the transfer. Just show me the transfer. And he did. This is where the running dialogue strated. The crazy homeless guy started yelling about disrespect. As a public servent, the bus driver should be more respectful, or so said the crazy guy. Of course, it was a runing dialogue with the word "MotherF*****" every other word. The bus continued over cathedral hill and up nob hill.

About the time we were going to start down the hill into China Town, an older Italian guy gets on the bus and sits in the empty seat across from me and in front of the crazy guy. Our friend is still ranting and the Italian guy tells him to shut up. The crazy guy asks him what he's going to do make him stop.

"Are you going to hit me?

"I'll hit you, you dumb MotherF**** if you don't shut up"

At this point the Italian guy stands up, turns around, grabs the bag of the guy and throws the off the bus. Words are exchanged and the Italian swings at the guy. He stumbles off the bus and at this point the bus driver gets out of his seat and heads to the back. Frank calls.

"How far away are you?"

"I can't talk. There's a fight on the bus."

"Really? Are you taking pictures?"

"People are swinging at each ... I'm not going to take any pictures!"

At this point, the homeless guy jumps back on the bus and swings at the Italian guy, whose head then snaps back and hits the window with a thud. His hat falls off and lands on the floor in front of two Asian school boys, dressed in school uniforms.

"What? You've never seen a man stand up for himself? Stop staring you dumb Motherf****ers."

The Italian guy got off two stops later and in his place sat an older gentleman who smelled like 30 day old urine. The people in the back of the bus started to comment on the fact that the Italian guy should not have engaged in a dialogue with the crazy guy who was obviously not all together in the all together. Me? I was thankful to get off the bus unscathed and to get on BART and head back to the sane world of Walla Walla.

Silverwood

Silverwood is a small amusment park in Idaho outside of Spokane, WA. Frank and I flew Southwest airlines to Spokane and spent the night at my cousin Wally's. He and his son showed no mercy and whipped us at Yatzee! The next morning, after a unique version of the Dutch Baby, we met Mom and Dad and Julie and her family. It is a small park that was originally built around a train and old airplanes. The midway area of the park has expanded to include two great wooden rollercoasters and a few fun water rides. Considering the age and the height limits, it was a good day.

The following day, I got to pull Uncle duty and played in the water park before heading to Walla Walla for Dad's birthday party.

Dad's Birthday

Walla Walla is always an odd thing to experience as an adult. In many ways, it is the home of my youth and everything is very familiar. Now when I visit I see people with kids who are the age I was when I lived there. Of course, it doesn't help when your father is turning 70! I can remember when Dad was my age and 70 was a long ways away! Crazy. We had a good time with friends at a Mexican restaurant and then a family picnic on Saturday. Good times., especially when they came in and put the Sombrero on his head.

A Little History Tour of Walla Walla

Growing up in Walla Walla meant long bike rides out on the country roads. Bikes eventually changed to scooters and motorcycles, but some of the destinations remained the same. Fort Walla Walla is one of the destinations that is fun to visit and since it was Louis and Clark days the museum had special live performers, though Frank and I could not figure out how anyone would confuse the short puffy-haired blond women with glasses as Sacajewa.

Another destination that holds many memories is the Whitman Mission National park. Frank and I took the girls out for a walk after a movie and Taylor took an opportunity to lie down where Narcissa Whitman was shot. Then we walked on the Oregon Trail and decided that we were not fit enough to travel by foot 5 - 25 miles a day. Trying to wow the girls, I tried to boast about working with the guy who wrote the book for Version II of the Oregon Trail software. They are past the age where this has any meaning to them. Oh well. It was good to walk the trails again and I was glad that I could show Frank a few more sights.