A little bit of Pride, a little bit of prejudice and a whole lot of fun...

Dorothy Wright, Ginger Bruner,
Lamar & Pat Marchese, Jan Craddock

Last night at the 5th Street School I had the pleasure to attend the opening of Pride (and Prejudice) a photographic exhibition by founder of Nevada Public Radio Lamar Marchese. The exhibition featured 30 images that were taken by Lamar during the Gay Pride parade in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2009. The collection included a stunningly colorful assortment of imagery depicting the characters of the parade; couples in happy in-brace, men and women in various costumes and of course no pride parade would be complete without the stereotypical protesters informing everyone to repent.

James Healey, Sister Lucy
Miss Kitty Litter

The event last night reminded me of how far we have come as a society in breaking down the barriers of bigotry and intolerance that has plagued our nation for generations. Whether it was the struggles of Native Americans, African Americans, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Italians, Irish, Polish, Russians, Chinese, Japanese, Latins and or members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-gender community, it is heartwarming to know that we have come a long way in building a better nation because of those who struggled before us.

It is through education and understanding that we will progress forward to a day when we will stand as one race, the Human race and celebrate what makes us Human. In the end we all live in one giant sphere in the universe, being held by gravity created by the mass of our planet. The Earth does not discriminate she holds us tightly together like a mother and child. Sometimes we all have to be reminded that the universe is a pretty lonely and cold place when you think about it, so it is best to set aside our prejudices and celebrate the diversity of our humanity.

Tonight the Gay Pride festivities continue with the parade in Downtown. The parade begins at 8pm along 4th Street and continues down to Fremont Street. So come down and celebrate the diversity of our humanity.

"I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stifled. I want all the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any." 

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Brian Paco Alvarez enculturating Las Vegas into the millennium...