Our city has had some firefighters and two ladder firetrucks at Pride (and other big parades and sometimes the Komen race) every year, suspending a giant American flag 60 feet in the air, positioned right at the end of the parade route so marchers get to pass under the flag. Way cool. They probably get hundreds if not thousands of “thank you, officer” greetings from paraders and spectators.

Our Pride is a tame kid-friendly event, with a few bar floats containing posing oiled guys in Speedos, and the obligatory drag queens, but everyone else is wearing reasonable quantities of clothing (for a steamy 95 degree day).

We are WAY more dignified and kid-friendly than Mardi Gras parade (straight, mostly) in this city. And drunks are rare at Pride, whereas Mardi Gras is merely an opportunity to get shitfaced and puke/ piss in the street and yell at women to show their boobs, a real frat-boy event.

That said, I’m sure they felt uncomfortable and it is outrageous that they were forced to participate is such an event, on display, without their consent – much less on the taxpayer dollar.

I also agree that behavior like this, at what is supposed to be a community bridging event (rather than just a party event), do enforce negative stereotypes. As does lesbian fire chiefs who demand preferential treatment for their own “kind.”