Pride London 2007

One of the things I like best about Pride day is walking around after the parade seeing gayers everywhere – in groups, in couples, alone - but all with their heads held high and looking … well PROUD, for want of a better word.

This year’s march seemed a bit shorter than last year’s but was equally colourful and diverse – drag queens, leather boys, femme dykes, all manner of ethnic groups and representatives of HM Forces. OK so it pissed down pretty much the whole time, but that’s just god’s way of reminding us we are all filthy sinners and will all burn in hell one day. Never mind.

I always tear up a bit at the beginning of the march, I think it was the gay police set me off this year. Thankfully they were followed closely behind by the drag queen above, my favourite of the year, who prevented me from actual eye spillage.

The trannies were well represented, which I thoroughly approved of, and there were some incredibly beautiful thai lady boys. One of my other favourites was this glitter ball man, who wins my prize for best outfit.

I got so excited, yelling and cheering, when Buck Angel’s float whizzed by that I didn’t even get a decent photo. He was wearing a greek-style headdress with gold leaves and was accompanied by Ashley Rider. His manager, Danny, was head of his troupe of slaves.

After the march we ran into Danny later on Regent Street with a rather sorry looking chariot. “Hi Danny”, I said, reaching to shake his hand. “We lost a wheel”, he replied glumly. Oh dear, it seems Buck and Ashley took a bit of a tumble and had to complete the march on foot. I was tempted to take a photo of the derelict vehicle to post here, but poor Danny looked so forlorn I didn’t have the heart.

We stopped by the cabaret stage in Leicester Square for a little bit of Lola Lasagne, but were bothered by some annoying twat with a whistle and decided to move along.

After a brief visit to the highly overcrowded rally at Trafalgar Square and a troll round the stalls in Soho, we decided we were a little bit tired and it was time to go shopping for sex toys at Clone Zone. What better way to end the day?

See my fabulous photos of the parade here.