Before the parade.

After an hour or so of grading exams in a café on State Street, I decided to walk up to the Capitol Square, and there I happened upon a gathering parade--a gay pride parade.

Some people had the casual but painted look:





Others were more formal:



There were plenty of signs for Tammy Baldwin and John Kerry:



The religious counterpoint was also represented:



Those holding religious signs were being relatively pleasant, at least during the pre-parade period when I was there. They would smile and say "hi" if you made eye contact. I saw and overheard quite a few real conversations between persons who supported the parade and those who showed up with signs to register their objection. Although I doubt that anyone's mind was changed, I was encouraged to see people having some serious face-to-face discussions that did not get ugly.



Some paraders called out "Jesus loves everyone!" and at one point, they sang "Jesus Loves Me." These two saw the religious character as a good photo op:



For all the parade pictures, go here. For Tonya's description of the parade, go here [Dead link.]

UPDATE: Prof. Yin thinks the green woman in the first picture looks like classic Star Trek woman Vina!

And here's the Wisconsin State Journal article about the parade.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Prof. Yin seems to think I recognized the character Vina, but I just clicked on the link he provided. So don't be thinking I keep track of Star Trek information. I have viewed some episodes of the original series, but that was back in the 1970s, and I can't remember much of anything except the basic look and demeanor of the characters and the general cheesiness of the sets. In the 70s, the show was of course already reruns. Did I watch the show when it was originally aired in the 60s? I watched at least part of one episode and concluded it was bad. I can't remember why. Either it seemed too phony or I didn't like the way they wore their hair. If I was going to watch a TV drama back in the late 60s, I think I wouldn't have been interested unless the characters wore their hair more like this.