Be Yourself, Change the World - It is always dangerous to make generalizations about a place you are just visiting, where you are a stranger, but here are my thoughts on SF Pride anyway. I was very impressed by what I saw of gay San Francisco this past weekend. Admittedly, I had a skewed perspective, having spent most of my time surrounded by rugby players, and many of them were not even from the Bay Area. Nevertheless, from the spectators at the Bingham Cup to the revellers on Castro at the Pink Party to the people I saw at the Pride Parade and Festival, I've never witnessed a more diverse gay community. The marchers included everything from gay cops to gay streetsweepers.

There is no definable "gay look" in San Francisco. Literally, you've got every ethnicity and tendency represented. I attribute this great showing to the fact that San Francisco has elevated gay tolerance past the point of acceptance truly to the point of celebration. Pride there isn't a matter of protesting by political activists or holding a neighborhood block party for an insular gay ghetto. In an environment where even straight people happily join the party, how could you not participate if you are gay? The resulting diversity testifies to the maxim, rarely witnessed in public, that gay people really do come from every walk of life.