Yesterday, our chum James drove in from West Virginia to see the Dixie Chicks with us.  We dragged him around town with us for a little quasi-gay adventure ...

We stopped at Eat 'n Park for lunch.  And discovered that they now have Dreamsicle milkshakes and yes, they are EXACTLY like you would imagine. 

Then we headed down to local LGBT gift shoppe, A Pleasant Present to have their fabulous owner Michael help us put together a gift basket for our hosts during our upcoming trip to Chicago.  He was like a whirlwind zipping around that store and had a lovely basket with a Pittsburgh theme compiled in about 10 minutes.  We discovered that they are closing their second floor and everything is on sale.  Its sad that they are closing, but we did pick up a few novelty items ... I got a cute gay dog mug and James did some risque birthday shopping for his friend back in WV. 

This is where I need to add that people in the LGBT community should be actively supporting queer small business owners.  Don't buy your tee shirts, videos and gift items online --- those online stores don't donate to local charities, sell tickets for everything queer under the sun or promote your events.  Show them some love ...

We also stopped by for the grand reopening of Kharisma Vintage Fashions and Daisy Mae, a fun new business that has relocated to our own Western Avenue here in the North Side.  We stopped in to be supportive and because we were curious.  Its a cool little venture, the space was comfortable and its exciting to realize that they can tailor vintage clothing to fit both petite Laura and plus sized Sue.  We may just rock the Lamdba Ball this year. The only thing to complain about was the lady smoking in the corner of the store.  Not only is that obnoxious in a small space, but it makes me wonder if the clothing will smell like smoke ...you know how much I hate rude smokers ...but maybe I'm out of the hipster vintage loop and people smoke when they have private clothing shows.  It still seems kind of gross.  But toddle on down there to check out the clothing and the cool vision of the owners.  Its just  block from Roxolana's Garden where you can refresh yourself with a cup of java and delicious homemade pastries. 

Dinner was at one of our favorite local restaurants, Legends of the North Shore on North Avenue by Allegheny General Hospital.  Delishus food, superb service and always a really good time.  Check out what the City Paper had to say about them .... our favorite server/host Chris always shows us a good time.    Rather than wait in line at the Olive Garden for 45 minutes on a Friday night, shoot down to the North Side (really its right off the parkway), find plenty of free parking and enjoy a fresh made meal for just a few dollars more.  What's not to love about that?

We wrapped up the day at the Dixie Chicks concert which was awesome. I haven't seen so many cowboy hats since I lived in Kentucky.  We were surrounded by yinzers, but I have to say that they all hootered and hollered when Natalie made her very few Bush jokes and cheered loudly during Not Ready to Back Down.   So perhaps liberal yinzers?  That warms my heart.  :-)

All in all, a good day ....

A celebration of gay pride in Riga, Latvia erupted in total chaos when homophobic fascists and anti-gay right wing extremists disrupted the parade, assaulted an openly gay pastor and surrounded a hotel trapping a dozen pride leaders for hours until being "rescued" by the government. (PageOneQ)

Reports from the Pride organizers indicate that police protection was nonexistant with little attempt to control the swelling crowds or protect the victims of the attacks.  As in Russia, the fascists were joined in their hateful violence by a multitude of religious people.  And as in Poland and Russia, the government banned the parade in open defiance of the human rights requirements of the European Union.

Eastern Europe is headed for a meltdown on gay civil rights.

In another story, the Gay WorldPride festival parade scheduled to be held in Jerusalem has been cancelled due to the looming all out war between Israel and Hezbollah.  The organizers had to cancel because there aren't enough soldiers available to protect the marchers. 

WorldPride proved to be the one thing in the universe capable of drawing together regional Jewish, Muslim and Christian flavored homo-bigots who insisted the parade be cancelled and threatened violence if it was not.  What a nice display of ecumenism!

Other WorldPride activities will go on as scheduled including a film festival and interfaith worship service.

These are the kind of stories that should make every queer in Pittsburgh rethink our attitudes about our own Pride Parade. While we worry about parking, sun screen and grabbing the swag, our brothers and sisters throughout the world are pelted with rocks and physically assaulted.  Our police officers protect us from crazy drivers and idiots who bring beer into the festival.  Eastern European police seem to protect the fascists and women using their Bibles to smack down homosexuals.  We are pursuing full civil rights while our counterparts in Nigeria struggle for the right to even exist. 

We must be on to something if we are drawing such wrath around the world from our avowed enemies.  And we here in Pittsburgh should take our existing civil liberties a bit more seriously rather than be lulled into a sense of complacency by the seeming peacefulness of our celebrations.  We owe that to queers in Russian, Poland, Nigeria, Israel and Latvia ... we owe it to ourselves. 

But, you say, PrideFest isn't until June.  True, but the most important election of 2006 and absolutely the biggest electoral battle for gay civil rights takes place right here in Pennsylvania.