Pride Fest

So this weekend was the pride fest here in Montreal. I got a good dose of reall cute, and I mean *really cute*, guys and being in Physics for such a long time, I was way past overdue. The parade was called 'Here comes the circus'

 

 

 

 

Of course the Trojans!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and they were giving out free hugs (not the trojans, but some other cute group of guys), yes I did get one, and in return got this sticker that said 'Non a l'homophobie!'.

Ok, I won't paint no rosy picture here. When two guys in my group said the other day said about the pride parade "I don't understand, do straight people go on parades? And this is so pornographical that people go around half naked". I rolled my eyes, homophobes, I thought. But it was true, there was some (quite a bit of) nakedness, men and women - actually some women were topless. So yes it was a litlle pornographical. But then I'm not sure what the big deal is - it's not like people have not seen these. There were actually quite a few people with their kids, the most notable was this East Asian couple with their 2yr old kid. Wow, I thought, talk about being progressive. And then there is this retirement home on St. Catherine (the road where the pride fest went), they were all on their balconies too. It was a very moving experience to watch these young immigrant couple with their 2 yr old son and these 80yr olds in a retirement home, all , even with the choice of a different life style themselves, came and enjoyed this celebration.

Having said that I must also say, I don't think every gay person participates in a pride fest, most gay people, like the ones in my neighborhood (did I mention I live in the gay village), are just sharing their love and life with someone else, they're not walking the streets half naked. Reminds me of Dan Savage questioning the validity of pride parades as community building events.

Still it was fun to watch 'Here comes the Circus!'