This Pagan Place: Queer Pride Day in Vermont

No rain on this Parade!

I love the Gay Pride Parade. It's so colorful and so joyful. Like a real life Four of Wands.

If someone would design a Four of Wands draped with the bright rainbow flags, and some drag queens dancing towards them, I would buy that deck just for that.

I haven't been to the Vermont Gay Pride for a couple of years but the Oaf and I caught it this year. We watched from inside our about-to-close local Borders where there are nice big windows and air conditioning.

As we were watching, a beautiful red-haired woman started to jump and wave at us. It was a good friend of mine marching with her Congregational church. Just ahead of her was another friend of mine, Mary. Preacher Mary, as she is sometimes called because she is the minister of the Congregational church in the next town.

There were something like five Christian churches marching in the Gay Pride Parade. Five. Maybe four, but I saw the Quakers, two Congregational congregations, and the Episcopalians. Plus the Unitarians usually have a crew marching. Petty amazing. It further convinces me that the World is getting better, not worse.

There is a spirit of revelry at Pride that is very Pagan. It's the way people come out to celebrate their sexuality and with such a show of color. Everyone dons their beautiful and shining rainment and dances in the street. It's like Beltaine or something!

I was not on the ball enough to have a live battery in my camera, so I did not get any shots of the actual parade. But I hurried home to get the good battery and then went to the festival for a nice sunburn.

The Sisters LeMay, Vermont's premier drag queens, hosted the after-parade festival. One or two of them lives right up the street from me--or used to anyway. I think they moved.

Every year they have an ASL interpreter at the event (American Sign Language) and I sometimes thing the ASL interpreter is the most interesting part of the whole thing.

Ever see some hard-rockin lesbian band be interpreted? It's pretty cool.

This is the band L. Dora rockin out on the stage.

And the ASL interpreter rockin out as well. She looked like she was having a great time.

Apparently our governor was at the festival, so he has my vote next time no matter how many vacations he takes. As was our Congressman. That's how amazing Vermont is becoming.

Here are some random shots from the festival. It was a hot and hazy day as you can tell. The thermometer at the bank said 94 degrees. I'm not sure it was as hot as that.