31st Annual Tarrant County Pride Parade

In some respects, I’m kind of a bad gay –– I don’t like musicals, Madonna annoys me, and parades usually bore me. But don’t let my personal tastes put a damper on your fun at the 31st Annual Tarrant County Gay Pride Parade, which kicks off noon Sat Oct 6 at 100 Main St in downtown Fort Worth. Context is everything, and folks, we still live in Texas –– a largely conservative state where, sadly, there’s still a lot of shame and discrimination associated with same-sex lovin’. Donning your gay apparel and hitting the streets to demonstrate queer power in numbers makes an important statement in these parts. That fiercely independent Texas spirit resides as much in the Fort Worth LGBT community as it does in any crowd of anti-gay bigots, so give ‘em hell, boys and girls. Just keep the Madonna tunes at low volume, please.