Gay Pride Parade 2011 in Rio de Janeiro

Luiz and I had originally planned to host a brunch on Sunday morning to gather our gay and lesbian friends and then all go over to Copacabana for the big parade (well, more like a street party). But to our frustration many of our queer friends (now all in our 50s) are not into these sorts of public events and big crowds (SO old school!)

Our friend Carlos in Fort Lauderdale, FL helped to forward some very cool rainbow chains (thank you Carlos!) which we were going to deck out our friends with – but alas, it was just Luiz and I – so we decided to take the beads with us to the event and sell them on the street. They were a hit! In less than two hours we had sold 34 of the 36 chains we had (keeping two for ourselves). We got R$10 a piece for them.

Anyway, the Parade was a gas, the weather was perfect AND we were able to meet up with Rachel and her band of merrymakers.

There were easily 11 trio-electricos, many outrageous drag queens, LOTS of straight people – and my favorite: yummy eye candy.

As is often our plan, Luiz and I stopped by the Chinese restaurant along Avenida Atlântica, east of the Copacabana Palace Hotel for dinner. (Friends in San Francisco, close your eyes, the price for a simple Hunan Chicken dish with fried rice, and two sodas: R$50.00 – OUCH – and they charged us R$1.00 for the Styrofoam box for taking home the leftovers!) 

On a more serious note – the theme of the many LGBT pride events across Brazil is to abolish homophobia, both through cultural campaigns and via the legislative process. Much progress has been made, and of course there is more to do.  But the level of political discourse at these events is impressive.