Evil Heather: 20th Annual Buffalo Gay Pride

Last weekend Les and I decided to check out Buffalo. We're not much farther from it than we are from Rochester but we just hadn't been there. We decided to go on a Sunday, our shared day off. While Googling things to do and/or see in Buffalo, we noticed their Gay Pride Parade and Festival happened to be on a Sunday, so we decided to go that day. (Probably a good thing, because it turns out, there isn't much to do or see in Buffalo and Pride was fun.)

So this (really long) post is going to be my photos from that day. We got to Buffalo, watched the parade, wandered around town for a while and eventually made it to the waterfront for the festival. During all of this it was great weather, not too hot, so I got terribly sunburned because I didn't notice how long I had been out in the sun.

A few things about the photos; the ones from the parade are what I could get, there were a lot of people in front of me and I didn't get as many photos as I wanted. Also, at the festival, I tried shooting from the hip and I learned a few things. Shooting from the hip on a crowded street is like shooting lightning, the shots that turn out are really awesome, but for every one you get that turns out, you get at least 20 that really suck. Unlike lightning the ones that suck aren't just black shots of nothing, they're of crotches and asses. When I wasn't shooting from the hip I was focusing on taking photos of people taking photos, dogs and hunting for interesting t-shirts. So, on to the photos...

The beginning of the parade.

I focused on dogs in the parade, too.

I just thought she was cool.

One of the reasons I like the Gay Pride Parade so much more than all other parades is the stuff that gets handed out or tossed. We came away with reusable shopping bags, chips, Otter Pops, beads, water and condoms. Way better than stale Tootsie Rolls Dum-Dums.

Gotta love the fat suit.

Ribbons off the back of the Planned Parenthood RV, they threw condoms.

I was impressed by the level of talent she had, she didn't falter once that I could see.

I don't know what float this was, maybe a local nightclub, but I liked the outfits.

Pride pug!

I really have no clue what these were, but they looked heavy.

Pride buffalo, you can't see from this angle, but she was also wearing a g-string.

Lady Godiva.

What's a Gay Pride Parade without fundie Christian protesters?


More Christians, much cooler message, but WAY worse sign planning.

These guys were checking out the ships in the Erie Canal.

I wish I knew what kind of dog this is, it was really cool looking.

I don't know who this is, but she must be famous because she was signing people left and right.

I'm not usually a fan of dressing dogs up, but at least she didn't spend a ton of money on dog sized clothes, he wears a men's large.

Look at that adorable face!

Tiny dogs are totally chick magnets.

Then again, maybe it wasn't the dog.

T-shirt spotting.

The woman taking surveys, she reminds me of someone I know, especially in this photo.

I like this guy's shirt and he's taking photos.

Another two-fer, cute dog and cool t-shirt, it says "Stealth Butch"

I don't know what this guy's deal was, but I took his photo anyway.

This guy took a photo of me taking a photo of him taking a photo of me. I'm pretty sure he was a reporter.

I had more fun watching the sign language interpreter than the band. She was getting into the music but having trouble understanding the words, we all were.

Another amusing t-shirt.

I didn't catch the name of this band, and it definitely wasn't my type of music. The covers they did seemed pretty crowd pleasing though.

I know I don't always hold my camera exactly the right way, it hurts my wrist, but at least I didn't blow almost $1,000 on an SLR camera and then not even use the eye piece. This guy hurt my brain.