The 2015 SF Pride Parade: Equality without Exception

I knew I wanted to attend the San Francisco Pride Parade the moment I watched the human rainbow strut cross my television screen. Six men and women stood arm in arm, an explosion of pencil balloons radiating from their backs like porcupine quills. Each human porcupine had been assigned one of the six colors of the LGBT flag and was dressed, head-to-toe, in that color. The crowd was smiling. The human porcupines were smiling. The combined effect was mesmerizing. 

I turned to Matt as soon as the news report ended.

Parade reveler

“We have to go next year!” I told him.

What I didn’t know at the time is Apple, Matt’s employer, participates in the parade each year. He signed us up in May. On Friday, just two days before the parade, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling on marriage equality. I'm relatively new to the San Francisco Bay Area, but from what I gather, Pride Weekend is always a big deal here. News of that 5-4 vote simply magnified the celebration and hugged the Bay in rainbows, moonbeams and starbursts. Everyone was gay or knew somebody who was gay or knew somebody who knew somebody who was gay. We wanted to paint the sky with ROYGBI (I’ve come to learn there are six colors – not seven -- in the LGBT flag) -- or at least show solidarity through application of that ubiquitous Facebook rainbow filter.

Yes, as participants in the 2015 parade, Matt and I would surely witness history. To mark the occasion, I began scouting Amazon.com for rainbow socks and punk rocker wigs.

“Isn’t the whole point of this to be yourself – not to dress crazy?” Matt asked.

My husband officially swore off cross-dressing in 2005, the year of the Great Guavaween Get-up: neon green wig, stuffed Hooters shirt, Victoria Secret Angel wings. We’ve been married long enough for me to know he can’t be cajoled into costumes but for him to worry I may still try. Undoubtedly, he was concerned any non-traditional clothing choice I made would ensnare him as well. But under the circumstances, Matt’s “be yourself” advice seemed appropriate. So on the day of the parade, I dressed in jeans and the official Apple Pride T-shirt provided. I satiated my inner "crazy" by accessorizing with a multicolored bead bracelet from the thrift store and a pair of neon orange Asics athletic shoes. 

The Apple contingent

In 2014, an estimated 12,000 Apple employees and family members completed the 12-block march down Market Street. This year, the parade organizers capped it at 8,000.

“They didn’t want this to become the ‘Apple Parade,’” a volunteer told us. Like Matt and I, this guy wore a white T-shirt featuring the Apple logo outlined in rainbow colors. But he also had a black Apple hat and one of those curly-cue earpieces typically reserved for members of the Secret Service and burly nightclub bouncers. His function: ensure overzealous Apple marchers at the staging area didn’t tumble off the sidewalk and into the stream of Dykes on Bikes.

After the motorcycles set off, the Apple crowd cheered the Scooter Queers and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. My favorite “float” belonged to AirBNB. The online accommodation network had arranged a flatbed to resemble a flat, and “lodgers” were dancing in the living room and pole dancing in the shower.

Apple came 13th in the line-up, and we waited on the sidewalk outside the One Market building for about an hour (I later learned our friends, marching with Coursera near the end of the parade, had to wait five hours to begin!). Eventually, however, the Black Hat Brigade permitted us to step off the sidewalk, and the Apple contingent poured into the street, rainbow flags waving.

I’ve photographed a few parades, but I don’t recall ever participating in one. I certainly don’t remember a more joyous group celebration. Everyone was hugging and dancing and holding hands. For much of the route, Matt and I walked alongside a golf cart-like vehicle tricked out to transport a 6-foot-tall speaker blasting pop music. We grooved to “Uptown Funk” and alternately waved our hands and flags. I photographed the Apple employees and revelers stacked 10 bodies deep against the barricades. 

When we reached the end of the route, Matt and I doubled back to watch the rest of the parade. I spotted Jim Obergefell just before we peeled off to locate lunch. The lead plaintiff in the marriage equality Supreme Court case smiled and waved from his perch on the trunk of a convertible. 

Jim Obergefell

“Thank you!” members of the crowd shouted at Obergefell.

“You’re welcome!” Obergefell shouted back to each one.

In light of the Supreme Court ruling’s magnitude, this seemed like a comically simplified exchange to me. But perhaps everything had been said that needed to be said; there wasn’t much more to share beyond simple gratitude.