Palm Springs Pride

This past weekend showcased one of my favorite events on the Palm Springs calendar, Pride Weekend. It’s a time when the whole town takes time to celebrate our diversity, our unity, and to party on….

It starts with tens of thousands of gay boys and men flooding into the town on Friday and Saturday. Palm Spings is normally 40%-50% gay, but on Pride weekend that number swells to 80%. The bars and restaurants are jumping, the mood on the streets is joyous and gay. On Saturday night a two-block area of downtown is blocked off for a gay street party, complete with live music, food vendors and plenty of booze, or whatever make you happy. Lots of people are in drag or costume, and it is a celebration of life and freedom.

At 10am on Sunday, Palm Canon Drive is lined with separators as the Pride parade marches down our main shopping boulevard. It’s a small town affair, not many big fancy floats.  And this year, surprisingly, there were only four dikes on bikes (normally it’s ten times that number.) But there are plenty of guys in drag, creative costumes, and colorful people.

On both days, people converge on a city park where organizers set up 5 different stages for live music, and there are plenty of food stalls and booths selling gay stuff. The best part of the fair, for me, is the Authors Village booth, sponsored by Q Trading Company bookstore. Every year several author get to meet the public, sign books, and chat-up their work. It’s a great time for me because I get to meet other authors and people who buy my stories. This year was no exception. I had a ball signing books and talking shop.

The only problem with Pride Weekend is that, like Christmas, it only comes to town once per year. L