World Pride

Thursday evening was World Pride.

Let me just say again, World Pride was never going to be some kind of half-naked party of corporate sponsored floats. It was exactly what I expected, a protest demonstration. Nothing commercial about it.

We gathered in Liberty Bell Park. The police said they wouldn't be there, but of course they were out in force, with vans, horses, riot gear, and AK 47's. (They're also incredibly hot, by the way, even though the guns make me deeply nervous. They in no way resemble the SFPD, none of them are over 24.) A few hundred of us gathered, held up signs and rainbow flags and such. A choir sang songs of prayer, peace, protest and resistance. Some held signs like "Pride, but no pride in Occupation." Many were in Hebrew or Arabic, so I could not read them.

There was an anarchist contingent, known variously as Queeruption or Black Laundry. They represented a strident anti-war message (which was not the official message of World Pride). They did end up scuffling with the police several times, and the police reacted quickly and violently.