Gay Pride here in San Francisco - also probably the warmest day here since 1998. I just got back this evening from buying maps for my trip. Walking back through Yerba Buena Gardens, it was such a beautiful evening - not cold at all, unlike most San Francisco evenings.

Early this afternoon, I went for my usual run along the Embarcadero. On the way back I realized that the X-Games (a kind of Olympics for skate-boarders or something - it's being broadcast on ESPN2) was taking place only a block from where the Pride Parade was leading off. I ran through the fringes of both crowds, and it was hilarious that there was such a contrast so close. But actually what made it even more interesting were the similarities - crowds had guys wearing too few clothes when they'd be better off covering up :). The major difference was that the straight guys were better looking - the young ones anyway - and the gay guys looked like they were having more fun.

I have to say that my reaction to Gay Pride really makes me question myself. I remember the first gay pride I went to - must be ten years ago. Philly didn't really have one until that year, so there were only about a thousand of us - we felt like pioneers.

Now I could care less, eventhough it was blocks away from my apartment. There are many valid reasons to have lost interest - the first being that I'm just not much of a partier anymore. And I guess it's natural to loose some of that enthusiasm for all things gay that you start off with when you come out. But my reaction to gay pride isn't just neutral - if I'm honest with myself - there are negative feelings there too. It just seems to me often like an excuse for a bunch of people to get drunk and wear entirely inappropriate skimpy clothing, and for hunky boys to get their bit of validation. But this is where I start questioning myself. I'm guessing that that little bit of anger that gay pride brings me is mixed with a little bit of recognition of myself in the behavior I'm denigrating.