Asexuality at SF pride 2011

Last weekend, I went to a pride parade for the first time.  I marched in SF pride 2011 as part of the asexual contingent.

But first, the day before the parade, we had a party at David Jay's house.  Which, of course, means cake.

Cake!

I met a bunch of cool people, and a nonempty subset of those cool people are also well-known in asexual circles. Some shout outs: There was Dallas, the asexual sexologist.  Southpaw and Cale, vloggers on Hot Pieces of Ace.  Lizzie from tumblr.  Cerberus, who blogs at Singularly Bizarre, and is part of the Order of the Molly.  And of course, Ily from Asexy Beast, though I already knew her.  Some of these people came from very far away.

In previous years this party time was used to make signs for the parade, but this year we had someone design the art to give us a more organized look (to be shown further down).  So instead, we organized a conference on the spot.  We came up with topics, organized them into sessions, and had volunteer facilitators.  Topics included future directions for the community, asexuals on TV, the DSM, kinky asexuals, and so on.

On the day of the parade, we actually spent a lot more time waiting to march than actually marching.  We have to wait for everyone else to go first.  So we spent that time setting up and dancing.

 Click for a bigger picture of DJ dancing on roller blades, sporting our shirt and an asexual flag cape.

In front of us was some union group.  Behind us were Amnesty... and the East Bay Atheists.  I know some of them!  I have one last shout out for Greta Christina who was marching with the East Bay Atheists.  I stopped to talk to her at one point, but of course she has no idea who I am.

Ingrid and Greta

Since we had asexual flags handy, I commented that we have no pictures on the internet of these flags waving around in the sky.  Well, now we do.

Taking pictures of flags is so hard...

After the long period of waiting, we finally got to march.  Being in the group, I couldn't take any good pictures of this, so here's one that someone else took.

 Click for bigger.  Image credit: Amanda

Not sure what else there is to say about the parade, but it was a lot of fun.

After the march, I bought a shirt that said, "I'm not gay, but my boyfriend is". I'm sure slightlymetaphysical will get a kick out of that.

The pink beast

I heard this story, which at first, I didn't know what to make of.

The story focuses on a YouTube sensation.  In the YouTube video, he and another man are dressed in big body suits that look a bit like Big Bird.  They're playing with a little baby, who is crawling all over their big fluffy costumes.  The other man needs to go, so he turns to leave and starts walking away.  And then our man delivers the punchline.  Holding out the baby he says, "Hey!  You forgot your baby!"

But the YouTube video itself isn't really relevant.  Later, the guy hears a legend about a great pink beast somewhere at the bottom of a particular lake.  Somehow he becomes convinced that this pink beast is the spirit of his dead wife.  So he meets with a local man, who is extremely skeptical, but willing to help.  To get the beast to reveal itself, he drives a car into the lake, as the local man stands by to help.

After he swims out of the car and lake, he starts shouting that there's something there.  The local man rushes to the edge of the lake, and watches the water, which has suddenly become clear.  The dirt at the bottom moves around until a small ledge appears, which lifts up, becoming the ceiling of an impossible cave.  Inside, clear as day, is the pink beast.  I saw clear video documentation of this, and I thought the beast looked like a buffalo.

The story ends there.  I puzzled about the explanation.  Clearly the beast isn't really his dead wife.  Could the two men be liars and hoaxers?  Maybe Brian Dunning should do an episode about this.

Then I woke up, and the explanation became obvious.  This also explains why the man was wearing his Big Bird costume as he drove into the lake.