Gay Pride Parade 2010

A couple of decades ago, the neighborhood where I live -- the South End -- was considered a gay neighborhood. With gentrification, that identity has faded and now it's more like a 'gay lawyers who live in multi-million dollar houses' neighborhood. The gay pride parade (the 40th!) was held this Saturday, and our apartment faced out onto the very end of the staging area and very beginning of the parade route.


On the whole, it was family friendly and surprisingly neighborhood-y. Unfortunately, the sporadic drizzle turned into steady rain by the midpoint of the parade and the crowd thinned out. But there was a nice crowd in front of my building (not even on the official parade route) at the start.


Our corner was the staging area for all the motorcycle clubs. Unfortunately, I didn't get any really good picture of the bikes.


Of course, the mayor and the governor were there:



One of the biggest groups was actually a protest against Hyatt with signs saying "Anti-Worker, Anti-Gay."


I think the first costume is a lobster, but I'm not sure what the second one is or represents:



There's something about this rainbow colored dumbbell; I think it's the awesome amateur-ness of it. And what is with that Chipotle Grill sponsored balloon? Is it supposed to be something more than an amorphous cylinder?