Monday, August 8, 2011

Amsterdam Gay Pride - August 2011

The primary reason for this trip was to attend my third international gay pride parade.  This year I chose Amsterdam, the gay capital of Europe.


Here's the greeting all visitors get when the arrive at the Amsterdam Centraal train station.


My hotel with the Dutch and Gay Pride flags.  I must have seen 5000 pride flags around the city.


The first event I attended was the Drag Queen Olympics.  The drag queens in Amsterdam were very ugly - not like the ones in Berlin a few years ago.  There were four events, including the stiletto sprint, the hangbag toss, a tug o love and finally........


the dressage, where three drag queens had to mount, ride and dismount a horse.  This lady won the event.


Here's the site of one of the many street parties, before and after the parade.


This crowd is small compared to the crowd after the parade.



Here's the start of the parade, which took place in one of the many canals.


You can serve in the military openly in the Netherlands.  Above is the gay military boat.


And of course we have the gay pirates.  Pink is the theme color for Amsterdam Gay Pride.


Here are our gay super heros.


There were many drag queens riding the boats.  These were even somewhat attractive.


It was interesting that probably 90% of those viewing the parade were straight.  The USA is so backwards when it comes to supporting and accepting gays.


The balloons on this boat had to be deflated to go under the many bridges.  See the following picture.






And all that was left after the parade were the trashed beer cans and wine bottles.  Not nearly as much as during New Orleans Mardi Gras.  But the cleaning crew was out and in an hour most signs of the parade were gone.

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