Daily Archives: July 8, 2009
Gay Pride 09
If you like loads of gays and loud music, then London’s Gay Pride celebrations are where you should have been on the 4th of July.
If you’d just had a row with your missus and thought that the fine architecture and well stocked galleries of central London might provide some respite – you’d instead be confronted with Boy George, The Cheeky Girls and burlesque dancers exposing their nipple tassels to Leicester square.
I soon stopped berating myself for not checking the Time Out website though, as it turned out the whole queer atmosphere was actually pretty impressive.
It does seem that London, having experienced these events since the sixties, is extremely comfortable with having drag queens wearing huge union jack ball gowns sauntering around Trafalgar Square – and totally fine with all manner of obscene photo opportunities taking place around nearby Leicester Square.
The normally well guarded fountain pools overlooked by ‘Kiss Me Hardy’ Nelson, were jammed with inebriated lesbians, chock full of battered queers – and sprinkled with a few straights, perhaps trying to absorb some gay credo.
Exasperated security men attempted to remove them, but it took several more hours before the party goers dispersed. The whole pink throbbing gay mass was overlooked by a sensible-looking Big Ben at the other end of Whitehall, the late sun illuminating it’s imperial clock face.
Even St Martin-in-the-Field sported the gay flag, adding to the permissive atmosphere of this rampantly energetic event. Up the road and round the bend Piccadilly Circus told a similar story – with the roads closed there was a vibrant mixture of full-bodied American tourists, aimless drag queens and snap happy Japs.
With deserted cinema foyers and theatre goers wielding cut-price tickets – you got the impression that few folk wanted to be indoors on a day as gay as this.
