First Prague Pride!

Rich and I were excited to attend the first ever Prague Pride parade! It was threatening rain and even gave us a few drops, but was mostly a fine day for a celebration. The parade was only one of many events over a few days. It had to be the calmest gay pride event I've ever witnessed. There were a few drag queens, but overwhelmingly it was a river of everyday people pouring along the cobblestones. Happy people. Gay people. 

I was almost disappointed to see only one person dressed in black leather. And as far as protesters go, we saw one man with a sign about Jesus, but not protesting really. The media were all over him - photographs, interviewing. There was nothing juicy for the media so they took what they could get. This was no doubt a relief to the serious police force present on the streets. Fully decked out in riot gear and everywhere, they were largely left sidelined.

Prague President Vaclav Klaus loudly opposed Prague Pride, but he was truly an outlier. While same-sex partnerships have been legal since 2006, gays still fall short of other rights such as adoption and protection from hate crimes.

So we cheered and smiled and watched and we would have waved our flags, but shockingly there wasn't a street vendor to be found hawking pride paraphernalia. Really, really.