2007 Columbus Gay Parade Pride
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Lesbians step out with pride
It may be more typical for East Bay denizens to head to San Francisco for gay pride events, but city resident Marge Nelson crossed the bay Saturday to march with her "sweetie" in Oakland's Sistahs Steppin' in Pride march. Walking arm in arm in purple T-shirts declaring them "Old Lesbians Organizing for Change," Nelson, 77, and Tita Caldwell, 75, helped bring up the rear of a joyful crowd that stopped traffic around Lake Merritt as marchers pounded drums, blew shrieking whistles and revved motorcycle engines in the fifth annual event. "Oakland has the largest number of lesbian households of any city in the nation. It's time to take pride in that," said Caldwell, an Oakland resident for 25 years who met Nelson last year at San Francisco's Dyke March. Nearby, thirtysomething Oaklanders Pam Flood and Yvonne Courtemanche pushed their 3-year-old daughter, Josephine, in a stroller.
World Pride in Israel
According to Hagai El-Ad, executive director of Jerusalem Open House, World Pride was intended to counteract "incitement against gays and lesbians" by conservative branches of Jerusalem's three main religions. Despite the protests of religious right wingers and a war only 80 km away, El-Ad and the rest of the Jerusalem Open House organizers somehow managed to bring people together for a global pride celebration.
When I first arrived in Jerusalem, Haneen Maikey, the Palestinian coordinator for Jerusalem Open House, recommended I visit Shushan, the local gay bar. Here, at least superficially, Jews and Palestinians seemed to get along.
There was even a Hasidic Jew the night I went, hiding in a corner, still wearing his heavy black clothes and hat, his curls dangling from his temples.
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