Cleveland Gay Pride 2009

Last Saturday (actually the entire weekend) was Cleveland Gay Pride. It's held in Voinovich Park, right next to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in downtown Cleveland.

OK, before you even ask, yeah I know...there are plenty of Pride festivals around, is the one in Cleveland so gosh darn special?

Not really, compared to others. But Cleveland is still a steel town (even though the steel has long since left), and Ohio is still in general a pretty conservative state.

So, to see a whole bunch of people at the festival was pretty inspiring. The crowd was huge, well-behaved and just having fun. I had some fantastic pierogies with cabbage and noodles, there was decent (if not overly loud) music, lots of booths to visit...just a decent time. And thankfully, the weather held out, despite the threat over the prior few days of nonstop rain.

One special guest at the festival was Bebe Zahara Benet, (shown below, NOT on the right) who was the winner of the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Personally, I'm not into the drag thing and I don't think I'll ever really understand it. But, hey, to each his/her own, right?

In all, it was nice to go. Afterwards, we went to the Clifton Arts Fest. Got a few things there. It really turned into a nice day.

This last pic is of my partner getting Bebe's autograph on an 8x10 glossy she was handing out. She was at the Time/Warner Cable booth, which has the LOGO channel (on which RuPaul's show is broadcast).