La Marcha Orgullo Gay - The Gay Pride Parade

When Uli told me about the Gay Pride March I was excited for two reasons. The first was that I had missed it last year, and the second was that I really never have been to a Gay March before. I think I was working during the last one in DC. I've only attended the Drag Queen race that happens every year around Halloween in DC. I left Frisbee right after practice to get back in time to shower and change and then Fanster and I headed to the Plaza de Mayo where the march began. Like a lot of other marches in BA, the march began at the Plaza de Mayo and headed down Avenida de Mayo until the end where the majestic Congresso stands. This means that 9 de Julio, one of the biggest avenues in the world, is blocked off for an extended period of time and traffic patterns are messed up and confused until the march comes to an end.
We met up with my friends Rachel and Maddie and walked around the little fair where all kinds of rainbow paraphernalia was being sold. We ran into our friends Ilene and Noel, and sat with them until we were ready to start marching.

Many trans people were dressed in wild costumes just like the drag races in DC

These pants are so Argentine, I love to hate them.

Maddie and Me

Trans Cops


My favorite transsexual: this older person did not try to hid her masculinity or her package or whatever was under there. She totally rocked.


The lesbian float didn't get much love seeing as is came after a float filled with mostly naked transsexuals...


Let others be normal

These boobs were fake, but also made of plastic. There was no end to real fake breasts as girls showed off their plastic surgery to no end.

The Bears and their sweeeet Bear Flag parachute

The Bear Flag

Stef and Rachel

Stef, Rachel, Maddie

We later ran into our friend Analia (pictured above), and if you remember your blog trivia she is the one whose dog bore Manzi. At this point we were feeling really cool that we had run into two groups of people we knew by accident. Then through the use of cellular phones we found Uli, and Coy (this amazing girl/owner of the sweet camera that took many of these and the Halloween photos that Dan introduced us too). Coy was with two friends, and soon we had a big group going and marched with the end floats who had the best DJ's on board.

Marching with Maddy

We finally found some Leather Daddies!!!

The above photo is impossibly limited in showing you how cool this night was. Here we are in the middle of 9 de Julio where there are normally around six lanes on each side full of buzzing traffic. Tonight it was empty and we were dancing in the middle with the Obelisco in the background.

La Barbie, aka the largest Argentine we've seen to date, perched on the hood of the Amerika Float (Armerika is a Gay Club in BA)

Dancing on top of a newspaper stand with a Quilmes

The Amerika float

Unlike parades or marches in the US, there was no barrier between us and the trucks. There were security men walking back and forth every so often to ensure a "safe" distance between the people and the truck, but I really couldn't believe how many drunk people were dancing wildly so close to those giant wheels. I of course would think this seeing as I hadn't a drop to drink because the Frisbee Finals were the next day, but I tried to push away thoughts of people being crushed to death and danced wildly to the music being played by DJ's on board. I even got to climb on board one for a bit where it was nothing but love. People were kissing and loving and very happy. It was like the biggest happiest, gayest boliche (club) in the world. There were thousands of people dancing and moving slowly forward singing and screaming at the top of their lungs. We'd been marching/dancing for at least two hours when we arrived at the Congresso and the plaza in front was filled to the max with people and speakers were shouting into microphones about marriage and gay rights. Uli stayed to see the bands play, but Stef and I headed back. I couldn't go out at night because we had to wake up at 8 to get to our Frisbee finals, but I didn't mind because I felt like I had already gone out to the biggest party of the year!! I'm not sure how other cities do it, but BA certainly has set the bar.