Another busy weekend….

Friday night, I took part in the Trans March. I felt more comfortable than last year’s march although it’s still heavily genderqueer, which really often means heavily FTM-leaning folks with affiliations to various stripes of lesbian feminism. Now I get along fine with trans guys, but in the past I’ve felt like I’ve encountered a bit of eye-rolling in genderqueer spaces—I’m “conventionally femme,” the horror, the horror….

Maybe it’s because I got there late, missing the speeches beforehand and getting there right as the march started. Thanks to the organizers who changed the route this year to circle up through the Castro District and back around to Dolores Park, where there was a post-parade celebration.

As we reached the edge of the Castro district, the denizens of the first bar we pass looked a bit nonplussed and didn’t bother to wave, but as we got into the heart of things we were greated by applause and cheers. I’m not sure how many folks where there—because the San Francisco Chronicle didn’t deem to cover the event—but there were clearly thousands of folks stretched out over several blocks.

Afterwards, I ran into some folks we knew as, well as Teri who I knew from the Betty boards, and who was visiting from out of town. I was starving, since I hadn’t eaten, so the group of us headed off to the Mission for dinner, ending at Dosa, which specialized in the South Indian dish of the same name, which is similar to a crepe.

Saturday, I met up again with Teri, as well my friends Marla and Rachel who were in town from Sacramento, for dinner and then went out to the Hayes Valley Follies show at Marlena’s. It was a bit of a reunion that night with the original members of the “Girly Girl Show” (the HVF’s prior incarnation).

Sunday morning was another all-too-early wake-up call to get out the door in time for the Pride Parade, which draws a half-million people. Once again, I was on drag-time, so I decided to stop at the my local coffeehouse to grab a cup for the road and a bite to eat. This was a bit of a big deal, since I usually stop there every day on the way to work—but I decided I didn’t really care if outted myself to them. The kid at the counter got a little wide-eyed, so it was pretty obvious he recognized me, but otherwise was perfectly professional. Then I as turned to go, I realized two of my neighbors were in line behind me! I’m out to them, but they’d never met me en femme. I said hi and congratulated M. on her pregnancy, which they’d just announced. Hopefully, I didn’t put them on the spot too much.

With this and that, I didn’t get there until the parade had started, but was able to locate Marla, Rachel and Terry. We watched the parade for awhile and then headed over to the Pride Celebration over at the Civic Center Plaza to get lunch and then catch Lipstick Conspiracy at the Transgender Pavillion.

While it was a sunny day—and surprisingly good weather for San Francisco, the festival area was a bit of wind tunnel, so the gang went back to their car to get sweaters. Meanwhile I dropped by the Transgender San Francisco margarita booth. I’d planned to work a shift there, but unfortunately work was so hectic I wasn’t able to do the required training. I did hang out at TGSF’s booth for awhile while waiting for the gang to return.

The day ended a bit anti-climatically. Too much lack of sleep during the week was catching up to me, so I started to crash and needed to call it a day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t raise Marla, Rachel or Teri on their cellphones, and by the time they called to see where I was, I was already back at the Daly City BART station, where my car was parked. So we didn’t really get a chance to say goodbye, but hopefully we’ll see each other soon.

Standard disclaimer: Going out of the house was right for me, it may or may not be right for you. If you’ve got no desire to leave the house, that’s fine, I’m not trying to push you out the door. But for those who’ve been yearning to do so, I just want to let you the world may not be as scary a place as you think.