I've been to San Francisco Pride once before. Overall, I'd say the LA celebration was louder, more crowded, and more over-sexed than that in San Francisco, which felt to me like almost any other street fair you might go to -- with the possible addition of free glow-in-the-dark condoms. At the same time, the standard deviation was considerably narrower LA. But San Francisco is San Francisco, LA is LA, and I had a good time yesterday.
It's commonly accepted that men are more shallow than women when it comes to romantic attraction. I find this to be true regardless of sexual orientation. The result is that, in a majority-straight crowd, the women -- who are trying to be attractive to men -- are more likely to obsess over their body image and to dress in ways that flatter their bodies. At the same time, the men -- who need only be attractive to women -- are more likely to come as they are.
This trend is reversed in a majority-gay crowd: the men are trying to be noticed by other men, so they tend to be very fit and to wear tight and/or revealing clothes. (Our society is more tolerant of partial nudity among men than women too, with the result that many Pride attendees wore very little indeed.) The women at yesterday's event were the ones who had it easy, and were much more likely, than at a straight event, to be frumpy and only semi-groomed.
The corollary is that, as a straight male, I am used to enjoying the benefits when my fellow citizens work hard to look their best. This trend, too, was reversed yesterday.
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