I love a parade!

I have been to quite a few parades.  The first I remember was Fasching in Wiesbaden, Germany as a ten-year old.  That one set the bar quite high for other parades to meet.  I've been once to the Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena (I'm still cleaning bits of tortilla out of the oddest places) and have gone to a bunch of Pride parades in West Hollywood.

Today, I marched in my first parade -- the Whittier Christmas Parade.

I was so proud and happy to march with the Whittier chapter of PFLAG in its first time being represented in this parade.  The staging (waiting for the parade to star

t moving) part took quite a while.  The parade was scheduled to start at 10 am and, because of our group's placing in the parade, we did not leave our staging area until 11 am.  There were around twenty of us marching, just dressed in warm and comfortable clothing with most of us sporting rainbow-colored ribbons either pinned to lapels or tied somewhere on our clothes.

This being the first time any LGBT-affiliated group had marched in this parade, no one knew for sure how anyone in the parade and those lined up and 

down Greenleaf and Mar Vista would react to our presence.

Like most of the other community groups, we waived to all, put on big smiles and wished everyone Merry Christmas as we walked along.

I had to bite the inside of my lip at one point to prevent tears from falling.  I could barely utter a word to anyone watching the parade.  Save for two people who let us know their displeasure at our presence, everyone involved was either quiet or was warm, friendly and excited.  Others in our group told me after we finished marching the parade route that they noticed some whom we passed were whispering to each other.

I cannot wait until next year's parade and will do what I can to talk everyone I know into participating with PFLAG, should PFLAG choose to

 march again.  The thousands participating and watching the parade saw a group of happy, proud people and a group that easily fit in with all of the 

marching bands, floats and other community gro

ups.

I'm posting my first picture in this blog.  My talents li

e in words, not in taking pictures.  I was just happy many of my pictures were free of my finger blocking the lens!  This photo does a good job summarizing how w

ell we were received.  Most in our group were handing out candy canes (as were most of the other groups) to parade watchers.  We had a happy group awaiting candy as I snapped this photo.