As this year’s Portland Pride draws ever nearer I am getting more and more excited. Your’s truly will be in full force this Sunday with my crew handing out stickers and trying not to fall off our bikes as we’re taking pictures and video. It’s sure to be entertaining, if for the bike crashes alone. The nebulously named Q crew of folks (sometimes referred to as Team Awesome or GrundleForce) will be dressed in that 6 bright color schema that has come to represent queer communities. I will be Mr. Blue and my compadres can be identified by their colors as they will appear in Thursday’s Pride Guide. Because they are almost as excited I am I have also decided to open up the next few days of blogging to their efforts. Hopefully each will contribute a guest commentary leading up to our Sunday appearance. So stay tuned. Really, some of them are much funnier than me.
Another tidbit to whet your Pride Parade appetite is the lineup. The whole parade should be fun and friendly, if not outrageous and ridiculous (like when the Sissyboys go by) but everyone needs to know when a slightly less exciting corporate sponsor is passing, giving you a window of opportunity to catch a bathroom break. You know how the gays are, always changing things, but this is the lineup as of now from the annual starters Dykes on Bikes to the enigmatic Boarder Riders. (We’re number 19, you know OregonLive I guess…) For more info visit the Pride NW website.
1. Dykes on Bikes
2. Pride Banner & Balloon Arch by Balloons on Broadway
3. Color Guard
4. Veterans For Peace Chapter 72
5. Wells Fargo with Spirit of Pride Winner Sen. Ginny Burdick
6. Ethyl Forever Car Club with Grand Marshals Sam Adams and Tina Kotek
7. Sexual Minorities Round Table
8. Human Rights Campaign
9. Our House
10. Robert Liberty
11. Democratic Party Of Oregon GLBT Caucus
12. Gay Freedom Band
13. Multnomah County (PRISM) & Ted Wheeler
14. Portland Black Pride & Brother to Brother
15. Saturday in The Park
16. Eugene / Springfield Pride
17. Pets on Broadway
18. Cricket Wireless
19. Oregon Live
20. Q-Center
21. Portland Gay men’s Chorus
22. Elder Resource Alliance
23. PLOP *Running Kids Tent*
24. Confluence Chorus
25. Darcelle XV
26. Radical Faeries
27. Imperial Sovereign Rose Court
28. Shanghai Stars
29. Sissyboy
30. Imperial Sovereign Court of the Willamette Empire
31. Poder Latino
32. Oregon Humane Society
33. Evergreen High Gay Straight Alliance
34. Starbucks
35. Bad Girls
36. Oregon Leather Fraternity
37. Portland Leather Alliance
38. Washington State Mr. Leather 2007
39. Blackout Leather Productions
40. Scream at the Beach
41. Pink Pistols
42. Oregon Bears
43. Clinton Street Cabaret
44. Equity Foundation
45. BRO
46. Combustible Media
47. Camp Starlight
48. Umatilla Morrow Alternatives
49. Research Education Group
50. National College of Natural Medicine
51. CAP
52. Outside Inn
53. Portland Sisters of perpetual indulgence
54. Planned Parenthood
55. Volkswagen Credit
56. Scandals Lounge and Restaurant
57. Metropolitan Community Church
58. Mid Columbia Unitarians
59. United Church of Christ
60. St Michaels Episcopal
61. Community of welcoming Congregations
62. First Unitarian Church
63. Soka Gakkai International
64. PFLAG
65. Rainbow RV
66. Century HS GSA
67. Gresham High School GSA
68. SMYRC
69. PSU Queers & Allies
71. Asian Pacific Island Lesbians and Gays
72. Siren Nation
73. Recesstime Sports
74. Rose City Rollers
75. Portland Avalanche Rugby
76. PDX Pride Bowling League
77. Rosetown Ramblers
78. YWCA
79. Love Tribe
80. Happy our production
81. Northwest Gender Alliance
82. NE Portland Relay for life
83. Bring Abuse out of the Closet
84. Just out
85. Price Waterhouse Coopers
86. Intel Corp
87. HP
88. Kaiser
89. PGE
90. Nike
91. Smooth Jazz
92. Volunteers of America
93. Pride Foundation
94. Oregon Psychological Association
95. SEIU Local 503 Lavender Caucus
96. Steam Portland
97. Egyptian Club
98. Red Dress
99. Clackamas County PLAG
100. Catholic Coalition of Welcoming Parish
101. Vancouver Heights
102. First United Methodist
103. Love Makes a family
104. Movin 107.5
105. Portland Gay Yellow Pages
106. Portland Team Volleyball
107. Quest Center for Integrative Health
108. Central Lutheran Church
109. Starkies
110. Pussy Posse
111. K-Boo
Last: Boarder Riders
I’m working in Boston next June?