Vancouver Pride 2024

[leathercubster]

Vancouver's 46th annual Pride parade yesterday was ho-hum to me as it was last year, but with one thing that made the watch worth it.




I got up at 7am and put on my clothes, vest, and boots. I decided to not wear my leather pants like I did at Bellingham Pride, but I put my Muir cap and camera bag in my backpack. My folks happened to be up early though my mom was asleep on the couch as I was leaving my room so only my dad saw me. I didn't wake her up and so I didn't have to say much as to where I was going. I drove to Benny's in Surrey so I could drop my car off in his visitor parkade as he was going to drive to the parade downtown. We picked up Pat after a twenty-minute wait and drove all the way to downtown Vancouver. We parked on Davie near Thurlow outside the Banana Leaf restaurant. Benny payed for parking though it would only allow up to 2 hours maximum. We then had breakfast at The Basic nearby. It was mostly full and glad there was no lineup given it was Pride day. I had blueberry pancakes and so did Benny while Pat had "The Basic" which was your typical breakfast of meats, eggs, and toast. I paid for Benny since he is driving us that day and paid for parking. We left the restaurant just after 11am and we were about an hour before the parade started, so Benny grabbed his tripod for his phone from his car. We went to the same spot on Burrard and Pacific as last year as we could sit on the concrete steps and be in the shade. We sat nearby and waited an hour for the parade to start. Knowing that the parking spot will be expiring soon, Benny tried to renew past the 2 hour parking limit through an automation system on the phone to no avail. Since Pay By Phone has you put in your license plate, they have it on record to prevent going past the limit, even after the expiration time. I tried the app on my phone to see if I could get around this and the same denial happened, even over an hour later. Benny wasn't happy about this and was prepared to get a ticket for it.







The parade reached us just after 12:30pm. The Dykes on Bikes slowed everything down by doing three circular rounds in the route - and it was not as though they would advance much in the route before doing it again! Argh! Just two is fine ladies! Anyways, the parade had its usual colourful participants until I saw the leather and puppy pride flags in the distance and at 1pm, Vancouver Men in Leather appeared! Yes!















I walked up to them and got some "okay" pictures though if I knew if they were going to be in the parade, I may have walked all the way to their set up point and got better ones. But I'm glad they were in compared to the pathetic "leather contingent" last year. Nothing more in the parade held my interest.











I continued to take select pictures until 2pm and then broke from the parade and returned to our spot. I took a small break a little earlier to get out of the sun and rest my feet in the shade. Under ten minutes later, Benny and Pat came to me so we could walk back to the car. Benny and I thought he was guaranteed a parking ticket as it was over two hours after the expiry time. We returned and found no ticket on the car! Lucky him - it may be that the meter maid was too busy to check it! Benny and I went inside the car to get out of the sun and put on the AC. We waited for Pat as he needed to pick up something from the Independent grocery store near Bute. He got his small groceries and got us large bottles of water to drink on the way home.

Benny drove Pat home first, basically going the opposite route as he came. After dropping Pat off and thanking us for the whole thing, Benny then took me back to his place so I could get my car. I thanked him for everything and let him know future Knights and BLUF plans. Despite needing to go pee and have been holding it since we left the parade, I got home quickly and found my folks were away (they were shopping for a new stove for their kitchen and washing machine for the downstairs suites), which made things easier and I did my long piss while my boots were still on.

Benny just uploaded his video of the parade on YouTube:

Click to view

Had VML not been in the parade this year, this parade would have just as boring as last year. Depending on the Vancouver Pride Society having small plugs up their rectums each year with their policies and screwing over the smaller groups, there is no prediction if the Vancouver leather community will be back. Guess I can always hope they will and my hopes were answered this time.

There is one more Pride parade for me this year and it will be next Sunday. My write-up on it should be around the end of the month. Joyeuse Fierte!