Rainbow Bright: Gays get lots of love at Pride, 'green' theme not so much

It's hard to imagine an event that could bring together Gov. Deval Patrick and his family, the New England Leather Alliance, the Cambridge Friends School, the corporate representatives of Frito Lay, and the Theater Offensive. But that's just a smattering of the more than 130 groups that waved to the crowds from the Boston Pride Parade route on June 14.

LGBT people and their allies turned out en masse for the first Boston Pride Parade in several years that wasn't dampened by downpours and chilly weather; the Boston Pride Committee estimates that about a half-million people watched the parade as it wound its way from the South End to City Hall, and that about 100,000 people gathered on City Hall Plaza for the post-parade festival, which included performances from Kimberly Locke and Kat DeLuna. Boston Pride Committee President Linda DeMarco said the turnout was the largest she's seen in her 11 years on the committee, and credited Boston's gay-friendly attitude -- and the warm, sunny weather -- with bringing people out to enjoy this year's Pride.

"I think the weather played a role with a lot of it. ... [But] for the most part Boston has embraced the gay community, and more people are feeling welcome to enjoy the festivities," said Linda DeMarco, president of the Boston Pride Committee.

This year's Pride theme, "Sustaining our community, conserving our world," was intended to focus parade participants on an environmental message, but there were few visible signs of the green theme on the marching route. Some participants, such as the Medway Oil truck and the National Grid truck, despite being draped with rainbow Pride flags, seemed glaringly at odds with a message of conservation. The winner of the parade's "Best Adaptation of the Theme," Yale Appliance, was one of the few participants to even take a stab at incorporating a pro-environmental message into its float, featuring signs touting its "Green Project," a buyer's guide of Yale's most energy efficient appliances. At first glance the float seemed to be the parade's top polluter, as folks atop the float showered the streets with rainbow-colored confetti. But DeMarco said the confetti was biodegradable and made from recycled paper, and the city's parade clean-up crew swept the streets and sidewalks clean to ensure that no confetti was left behind.

With so few parade participants embracing this year's theme, the Pride Committee offered just one runner up award for best theme adaptation instead of its usual two. The second place award went to the joint contingent from Massachusetts Asian and Pacific Islanders (MAP) for Health and the Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association (MASALA). MAP and MASALA had a carbon neutral presence in this year's parade, combining a virtual float -- a group of marchers surrounded by four poles connected with hanging strips of fabric -- and a rickshaw.

Other winners at the parade included the Boston Prime Timers, a social organization for older gay men and their admirers, who won the best float award for the third year in a row with their tribute to la Cage aux Folles; the float included a giant birdcage and several of the Prime Timers themselves in outlandish drag costumes. Sun Life Financial won the award for best marching group.

DeMarco said the green spirit may have been lacking during the parade, but the thousands of people who attended the Pride festival on City Hall Plaza and the various block parties throughout the weekend took advantage of the committee's efforts to reduce the environmental impact of Pride.

"There were a few people embracing the theme, but I think it was more embraced at the block parties and City Hall Plaza. Everybody recycled. We used half our dumpster space. And we recycled all our cardboard," said DeMarco.

An informal survey of City Hall Plaza by Bay Windows found that most of the recycling bins on the plaza had a plethora of plastic bottles inside them, and there were few if any recyclable bottles visible in the garbage cans. DeMarco said attendees also made good use of the bike racks stationed at the block parties. The recycling and bike racks were successful enough that committee plans to reprise those initiatives in next year's Pride.

The parade itself went off almost without a hitch, but not quite. DeMarco said the start of the parade was delayed by about fifteen minutes because two of the parade groups, Fenway Community Health Center and the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers (MAPS), had floats that failed the pre-parade inspection. Fenway's float violated city rules by attaching a trailer to the back of a flatbed truck, but Pride worked with Fenway to separate the float into two separate units, hitching the trailer to a car. The MAPS float was deemed too long to navigate the twists and turns of the parade route, and the group opted to leave the float behind and ride through the parade on two cars.

"It was heart wrenching for us, but we had to say no, and they were really emotionally upset about it," said DeMarco, adding that during the orientation events leading up to the parade the committee laid out the rules for parade floats. "Boston is not as wide as Chicago and New York, so there's limits to the kind of floats we can have. ... We have historical streets that are narrow, and we need to make sure these vehicles can get through them."