As we begin to celebrate our 37th Pride celebration in San Diego, the impending festivities have made me reflect about the 33 years I have attended Pride celebrations across the world. My first Pride was in Chicago in 1978. I had just graduated from high school and was spending my last summer before heading off to Stanford University. Of course, my anticipation was off the charts. I had been sneaking into gay bars over the last several months, had already been kissed and was excited about seeing so many gay people in one place at the same time.

Needless to say, Chicago did not disappoint. Back then, 5000 people attending a mid-western Pride parade was huge. That’s right 5000 people. In San Diego the same year, a few hundred people marched in the Pride parade. Of course, the Chicago parade, like most at the time, was largely white gay men. Sure there were a few drag queens, lesbians and people of color, but it was largely a white male affair. No go-go boys, no HIV/AIDS prevention floats, no HRC equal sign, no festival, just a gathering of people who wanted to be accepted for who they were. People putting themselves in harm’s way in the hope that one day they would be treated equally. Sure, the bars were packed afterword, but the parade was about political action and being “out” to Chicago. Like in life, your first experience always seems to remain the most vivid and important.

Once I attended Stanford, I got to experience Pride parades in San Francisco and Los Angeles. They were eye opening and contrasting to say the least. San Francisco was a much more bohemian atmosphere than Chicago, a lot more diversity and a lot more open drug use. I mean it was the late 70’s and I could smell a lot of pot along the parade route. The Los Angeles pride event included a festival which was a welcome addition and was full of beautiful boys. LA was so much more homogeneous, not unlike Chicago, whereas San Francisco was much more representative of the community as a whole.

Flash to 1986 and I am living in Boston after graduating from Harvard Business School. It is the beginning of the AIDS crisis and people are dying left and right. The Boston Pride parade was rather somber because of the “gay plague.” While the party atmosphere of Pride had become more prevalent in the early 80’s, once AIDS happened there was a lot less partying and much more focus on political action by groups fighting for those suffering from the disease. Around this time, I also attended my first Pride parade in New York. Of course, New York called the parade a “march” and still does today. It is an attempt to keep the political aspect front and center. The attendance in New York was daunting, tens of thousands, but nothing compared to what I would experience at the March on Washington later in 1987.

In the 90’s, Pride began to take on less political significance and, to be honest, became a reason for me to meet friends in a city for a big party. I attended Pride in Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Miami, P-Town, and Atlanta, to name a few. With each, a little bit of the original reason for the events died, just a little bit. Each party got bigger, but the significance of why the event was being held got pushed farther and farther back in the priority list. Sure there were floats highlighting the diversity of our community, but Prides really just became street parties. What political action do they serve, what action does our community take during the celebrations to move our rights forward? Other than showing that there are millions of us who are out and accept ourselves, Pride has become one big GLBT party across the world. Hey, but there is nothing wrong with that…go party!