It's a Kiki with Johnny McGee. Gonna spill all the tea, all my
LGBTS. You're in love.
Cause Johnny the government is gay.
Yes, fine. Hello everyone and welcome to
Gay Ass Fuck. I am your host, Mr. John T
Mcgarnas, he who is well baby, happy pride.
Pride month is upon us. It's my favorite time of year
when everybody puts on their rainbow flags.
Hey, Citibank, what are you doing?
Oh, you're waving your flag. Hey, Wells Fargo, what are you
up to? Are you wearing an assless
jockstrap? Oh, my God.
Thank you, Wells Fargo. Oh, what about you, Bank of
America? Or you.
You're doing bumps of coke in the back and then taking
poppers, you nasty slut. Way to show your gay support.
Thank you so much, corporate sponsors.
I do love gay pride. And this weekend is the West
Hollywood mega Pride event. Well, you know, we're lucky.
We have three different pride celebrations here in Los
Angeles. There's We Ho Pride, then later
there's LA Pride, and then there's TTLA Pride.
So the beginning of Pride season is kicked off with We Ho Pride
and baby, all the stars are gonna be here.
Miss Kylie Minogue is performing Janelle Monáe and my most
important and most excited to see Dochi is performing.
Yes, I'm plus Trixie Mattel is DJ admit on the dance floor,
Sophie, Ellis, Baxter and baby, you know what I did?
I'd acted like a grown homosexual and I bought VIP.
Okay, gone are the days where I'm, I'm going to just wait on
the line or have a bad area. Honey, I went and bought the VIP
for all three days because you know what?
Last year I went around to the free area of Pride and I was
like, I'm not going to buy no expensive ticket.
And you know what? All it was was like the AT&T
booth and the Lube booths out in the street and it just didn't
feel as glamorous as I wanted. So I caved and this year I
bought the the VIP pass for all the days to get in quick and
have a little area to relax and mostly just see the faggotry.
I love the faggotry of gay pride.
I love all the letters, the L, the G, the B, the T, the Q, the
Plus. The Plus is turning it, umm, so
that is gonna be fun. I got all my homo homies lined
up. We are going together and we are
going to have some fun. Be wearing my new giant
Balenciaga sneakers, turning a hairy dad look.
So I heart pride and of course I will be going to the gay pride
parade because though it is not the thing of beauty that I wish
the gay pride parade was is. I mean, I wish it was funded
privately by gay billionaires to make it the most cut and
gorgeous thing you've ever seen. You know what I mean?
A gay pride parade so stunning that you people whacked with
glamour. But we don't have that.
But we we do have is Goodwill Go go boys and an occasional
celebrity riding in the back of a car.
So I will be there. And for today's show, I thought
it would be a fun day in honor of pride to actually give you a
Patreon preview. One of my favorite shows we do
on Patreon is a show called Menergy where we go in deep
about all things gay, especially in dirty gay stuff.
But we talked to, of course, about many things of homosexual
history and note. And we have an entire episode
all about the gay pride parade, our own experiences at Pride,
our crazy stories from Pride, and a history lesson on the
beginnings of Pride and where we think it should go.
So if you like this today, then you're going to want to come on
over to the home of where Menergy and so many other fun
podcasts I do are, which is at patreon.com/gayest of all time.
That is where you'll get the closest to me and you'll get the
most content, which includes this fabulous show, Menergy with
my homo homie, the hilarious Mr. Katie Marcus.
So please to sit back and enjoy a special Patreon preview of
Menergy Gay Pride Parade. Get into it, into it.
Get into it. Get into it, get into it.
What month is it, Teddy? Pride, Pride, a pride.
The original version. Has.
Not that I don't love Aretha's version.
We can never forget Miss Deborah Cooper.
Wait, this is Deborah Cooper. This came out in 91.
It wasn't until around 94 that we got.
Honey, that was that was a good one.
I forgot about that one because I got so used to miss things.
Right. I mean, then of course later we
did get this not Street Farm commercial, you fucking
homophobic butt head. She just did a karaoke, sweetie.
I've got 20 minutes, everyone. I'm wearing a pride down.
But I've never seen the video because it was from Sister Act
2. Oh, seriously?
Yeah. It's thanks to Sister Act.
A lot of things happen from Sister Act, we got Lauren Hill.
What? How?
What else, Aretha, do you get up out of bed?
What do you do then? Why?
Is it easy? No.
Why? What can you repeat that?
But where is the love and what do you call it, right?
I say pride, but you know, it's so, it's so perfectly, Anthony,
that it's perfect. It's so perfect.
Surprise. Well, everyone, I think that's
how to start it off. It's time for our Pride Month
spectacular on Menergy Teddy.
You know when you hear that organ, that pride organ, my body
goes insane. It it kind of like it just it's
pride. It sounds like pride.
Right, because your organs are all gay and they hear it and
they start shimmying. My organ goes.
Shake. God, a deep love, a pride.
Right. Your liver's like leads move
your your hole is like wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.
Your heart's like pumping blood faster.
Is that an organ or what? Is it a synthesizer or is it an
organ? That's a that is an organ sound
on a fence synthesizer. That is that That deep bellowy
organ sound reminds me of pride. Like I love pride.
I love it. We both love Pride.
It's Pride Month everyone, and we thought today on Menergy we
would take a trip down Pride Lane to talk about the Gate
Pride Parade and its history and our own experiences.
Because we've been to several prides.
We are old. We have been to many, many.
Too many. Many, many.
One is 7 or 8 years of pride, everyone.
I remember when Mr. Bert Convy was the Grand Marshall of the
Pride Parade. Mr. Bert, Miss Bert Convy was my
God. Bert Convy really the.
No, I was gonna say no, no, I think.
And then I'm pride Divas. Hello.
I mean, there's so much to talk about with Fried.
Now What? Teddy, do you remember your
first gay pride? I do.
What was? Please take us back.
The. Year is 19 O2.
Let's get into The Time Machine and go back to 1932.
I had a Stagecoach. I parked right there on Santa
Monica Blvd. I painted my Stagecoach rainbow.
That's who painted my horses balls pink.
I My first gay pride was in We hope, believe it or not.
Wow. Right.
Like what year? 80 something I want to say 89
maybe I, I, I grew up in Philly, but I didn't go to any of the
prides in Philly until I, I moved to LA, then I moved back
to Philly. When I went back, I went to
pride, but my first. You were because you were
deeply. Classified.
I don't know what it was I. Didn't if gold if they see Teddy
at the pride, they will go crazy.
Don't do it for your Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Where are you going, Teddy? Right.
Why is a fucker? Why are you proud?
The first pride, the first pride parade I was I was spectator of
was in Weho. That was like, I think I want to
say 89 and it was down Santa Monica Blvd.
It wasn't all like corporate and all that Wells Fargo and all
that. It was just a really fun local
neighborhoody, kind of everyone out there having a good time
that I miss that prides. So what at in 89 'cause now
we're that's about 20 years into the gay pride phenomenon 'cause
they really started early 70s What what was the vibe?
Cause by the time I came to Pride, it was not quite the
corporate sponsorship shill that it became eventually.
How many people like how? How packed were the streets?
They were packed, but not like, not like, you know, 300,000
people that the cops have to come and disperse everybody.
It was just basically pretty much everybody that you knew
either from the neighborhood or you know, the outer lying
neighborhoods. A couple people from Long Beach
would come. It wasn't like, you know, it
wasn't like a destination and people planned for it and
couldn't wait to get there. And everyone was wearing those
cute little corduroy OP shorts, you know the ones I'm talking
about, beautiful colors like Raspberry and Raspberry tank
tops. I think even international mail
was still there. They had.
International Mail was definitely still there.
They probably had a float. They had a in their parking lot,
they had like tents and fun activities and giveaways and
little like fun. There was stuff now like now you
go to Pride and it's like pamphlets.
And then it was fun things like swag bags that were just really,
really fun. I'm trying to now were what was
your feeling on that first day? Well, I, I kind of, I was kind
of nervous because I always felt, you know, too fat to go to
pride. You know I.
Was like, I don't know if I want to walk the streets with all
these guys from everywhere. You know, I had my cute little
bars that I would go to that everyone was like, Oh yeah, you
were cool there. But this was everybody.
This was bathhouse Queens, Gym Queens.
This was all of them. And.
It was the United colors of faggotry.
So I, I was, I was nervous, but once I got there and was it, it
felt fantastic. And then that organ, honey, you
heard that organ and there was dancing in the streets.
There wasn't like this is the this is the house booth.
This is the, the, the Latin booth.
This is It was all one big dance party that was just fun.
I'm trying to remember when the first pride that I went to was
because I didn't really fully come out until after college to
yourself. Well, I mean I had had gay sex
in college and that is what made me say oh I am gay.
I love it because before pre actually having sex with a guy I
was very full of torment and whatever else and still trying
to sleep with girls and etc. Sorry ladies, I apologize
though, I ate your pussy. How did you hear about pride?
How did you know pride even was a thing?
I'm trying to even remember. I don't think I ever went to
Pride when I was in college because I was just up in my own
world and I definitely wasn't about to go to Pride.
But then when I moved to New York and I had passed beyond my
I'm bisexual phase. How long did that last?
Short. It was short, but it was like a
it. Was a day.
It was the thing where I felt comfortable and it's still the
same, especially with today's youth.
I felt comfortable saying oh I'm bi and it was a step, now I'm
respecting. Bisexuality.
It exists, okay? It's a stepping stone.
Just saying. But it can be.
It can be a way to dip out, to put a toe in the water and that
was it for me, but I kinda I can't remember the exact first.
Pride. Was it New York Pride?
Maybe. Probably it's got to have been
New York. Pride was flawless.
Oh, you know what? It has to have been New York
Pride because, and, and the thing that I remember most that
I loved about New York Gay Pride, because if you've never
been to New York Gay Pride, the shit is big, huge.
The parade goes from Midtown all the way downtown to the Piers.
Is my. Favorite And then there's
usually like a big show. And at that time there was also
they would do had a concert venue on the Piers where we'd
have all the big stars. That's when Whitney Houston did.
It's not right, but it's OK. Like I can't remember anyone
else because that's the only important one.
Every big star. Hit Yeah, they were big stars.
Not just those dance Divas. You know they right Big stars.
But they weren't. They were.
There was always one big star.
But the thing I liked about New York Pride was there was a lots
of local acts, drag Queens, people that actually were.
You would get a gig on Pride if you lived in New York and you
were a performer. Well, that was my favorite part
about pride. The Pride gigs were the best.
That's so fun. The thing I remember the most
loving about Pride was the Post parade.
Walking around in New York when everyone was you just kind of
like buzzing with good game feelings.
Everybody was happy and you felt free and you felt accepted and
you felt loved. And that's what I I love.
That's my favorite part too. I love that after Pride parade,
feeling like everybody's gay, everybody.
Right. Everybody's gay, everybody's
living. You're just having fun.
The vibe is just wonderful. And of course, when I was
throwing parties, Pride was a work holiday.
Amazing. A work holiday and you knew you
were about to make a ton of money no matter what bar, to be
honest, that has ruined me for going out on gay pride for the
rest of my life. Because unless you work at the
party where you just then you're there and you're getting for,
you're just spending. It's like New Year's Eve,
almost. Yeah.
And you, it's hard to get in. You can't.
It's. Hard to get in and once you get
in it's really smushy and you know.
And drinks are really pricey and everything's in a plastic cup.
And I hate the fact that everything's in a plastic cup
because, you know, you can't take it outside, but you still
need it in a plastic cup. I think with the first, I think
the first time we actually connected.
Was that a pride? Because you did my pride show at
FUBAR. Right.
And that is where Let's Get Soaking where Julie was born.
Now I had done shows before that was that was maybe maybe I did
the original Pride show a year prior to Let's get Soaking with
Julie, OK? Yeah, because that was my
favorite show to do at food and we used to do 2 nights.
It was Friday night and Saturday.
So fun. That was the kickoff.
That was maybe the best part of pride for me in the last few
years was those shows, those those my kids.
The audiences were happy, they were packed.
There was a lot of people and everybody came, watched the
comedy show and then boom, Pride season started.
They were out and about and up and down the Boulevard.
I loved it. Now in the last few years, there
have been a lot more corporate sponsorships of Pride and like I
did, as though I appreciate the show of support.
I do not need the Wells Fargo, say Wells Fargo.
I do not need every corporate thing.
I want to see real gay groups. I want to see the P flag
parents. I want to see trans power.
I want to see black queer community power.
I want to see Dicks. I want to see people covered in
in glitter. Oh honey, glitter story right
here. Oh, right, Teddy, It has a story
about glitter. That was and.
Not the Mariah Carey movie. Although when I worked for
Bloomingdale's, you know, I was doing makeup.
I was a cosmetic consultant at Bloomingdale's for a very long
time. What a shock.
And Bloomingdale's had a booth at Pride and they said, hey,
would you, 'cause I, I didn't want to sit outside in a tent in
the blazing June and LA sun. And they're like, would you
just, you know, spend an hour putting glitter on people?
So I had a little pot of glitter and a brush.
And the guys would come by and we were like, glitter, glitter,
glitter. And then you would glitter them.
But as the night wore on, they didn't want glitter just on
their face anymore. And the Dicks came out.
It was a different time, everyone.
It was she literally would take a a brush, dip it in glitter,
glitter, somebody's Dick and you.
Were not using a brush. I used my mouth you.
Wouldn't you at least were like dumping it out on your hand and
being like, let me, let me get into this.
But they were lined up, Dicks out and it was like nobody.
And I didn't clean the brush in between the Dicks.
They just got glitter dicked. I didn't clean the brush between
the Dicks. Teddy Marcus, that's.
A quote that's a. Shirt 21.
There's a shirt I didn't clean the brush between the Dicks.
That's an audience of one for that shirt, you and me.
Mine. I'll take it.
Right, exactly. Oh my God.
Now one year for pride. I was on a float.
Now you'd think I would have been on a float many years, but
it always was a little. There was just a lot going on.
I was usually working to get up so early for it, but one year I
was. 4:30 AM. They start lining up at 5:30.
AM And then it doesn't start rolling until noon.
But I remember and this was sort of in the height of the gay pimp
years, I was on some float dressed as fucking gay pimp and
sweetie, I was in my element. It was like waving, giving the
gay pimp like face pointing, doing it.
I was yes, I was every, I think even the people the float were
like, check her out. She's she's living, she's pride.
She is living. Oh my God.
Wait, what was the float? It was an actual float.
Yeah, it was like one of those like movin floats.
Was it New York? It was New York Pride.
Yeah, I love it. Now.
Another time, one year when I was on tour with Dita, I was
feeling my showbiz moans, and they had asked me to host the
Pride mainstage here in West Hollywood.
Like the big OH? I remember that, I remember
that, but you were on stage for like 8 hours.
Right. It was like the whole day.
And so I flew in, I got up, I got into my outfit.
I was not feeling great about how I looked.
So I was wearing like too many layers.
It was very hot. Now I was supposed to come back
and I had made a big stink with the people at the thing saying
that I wanted Lady Red to be my Co host.
Like I I, I was like, I need her.
You don't have to pay her. I'll pay her on my own money.
She's gonna do it with me. Well, of course I fly back and
then we're supposed to ride together in the back of an
antique car down Santa Monica Blvd. for the parade.
Waving. Waving right?
So then I get home. Lady Red is having one for her
CVS episodes so she can't do the thing.
So I have to then, by myself, sit in the back of this antique
car waving. Now, the good thing about the
New York Pride is that the streets are wide, OK?
And if you're on a float, you're like kind of high up, and it
mostly moves. And maybe there's music.
But when you do the West Hollywood parade, it's a smaller
track that you're on and. You're stuck in there.
You're like you're stuck. You're stuck.
So what would happen is we would go down the street waving,
waving, It's fine. Like this is going to be over
soon. Sure, there's some some
applause. People are like, oh, look, then
stop. Then the car stop.
So then you're just there sitting and there's no
protection of like 20 other people with you.
It's just me and the man from the from the antique auto ship
dealer, the bear who's from that place and and me and then the
people who already a clap for me are just like pointing there he
is. Then the other people who don't
know who I am are just stare at you and it now, if I had Lady
Red there, I we would have been able to just Kiki or just
pretend we don't care when you're there alone.
It is so sad and pathetic. And then I get to the venue,
'cause if you do one of those mainstage brides, and this is
the big, big one, they are huge. So in the beginning of the day,
it's kind of small, but then by the time the night rolled
around, now we're talking Dua Lipa, it's Christina Aguilera,
Cece Peniston, They, they were all.
So that actually did become really fun because then there
was like, oh. That was the And that's when you
you did you, didn't you meet Christina Aguilera?
Well, not meet. In fact, we were told to not
look at her. Don't look.
In the eye, Don't look Christina in the eye.
She was there and she was surrounded by security and that
was when the girls all came out and Christina looked and then
Christina went came out to surprise them, but no one in the
audience could see Christina because the drag queen all
mobbed her the minute she came on stereo.
This was just three years ago, four years just before.
Pandemic 2018. Yeah, yeah.
Oh my God. 2018 or 2019 20/18/2018 So that was a good
and bad pride memory. I'm trying to think of some of
my I mean, I just mostly just love the vibe on Pride.
That's my favorite. I used to love just walking
around. I didn't really need the feel
the need to be in a float 'cause it's not about like glory or
waving. It's just about like and soaking
up all the gay. Energy being on the float, it's
kind of almost embarrassing. And for me, I was on a float
once and had no reason to be on the damn float.
It wasn't even a float. It was a double Decker, one of
those red double Decker buses. And I was sitting at the top and
we were following. Margaret Cho was in the car in
front. And so all the comedians, like
the out gay comedians were on there.
They asked me to be on it. Nobody knows who I am.
I'm up there waving like I am. I am Christina Aguilera and
people are waving and I can. I literally see people mouthing
who's that? And I'm thinking to myself, what
am I doing up here? Why am I here?
You couldn't get off and if you had to pee, what do you do?
Like it was no, I was like, you know what?
My fantasy of being waving on from a float is fulfilled and if
I never do it again, I'm OK. I felt that way too.
I was like, I've done this. This was great.
You know, maybe at a different time, if I suddenly skyrocket in
fame and everyone knows who you are, that's that's a different
story. But when it's just a smattering
of applause, it's not the same. The worst was we had drove past,
I think it was like trunks and literally I could.
And like you said, when it stops you, you're like, oh, hey, I saw
I heard somebody go, who the Hell's that?
And I just thought, what am I doing here?
Get me off keep. Smiling.
Keep waving well. There's a picture of me.
I have to find it. I am literally waving as if I
were Mariah Carey like I am. Like that's the only thing you
can do on a pride float is you have to just live and wave.
You live. And you know what I do
appreciate they're the good vibes of pride is so much that
people will just wave to be not. They'll be like, oh, hi, yay,
and they'll cheer. But then those cheers are short
lived. And then there's the silence.
When The thing is when you got to have music, if you're going
to do a Pride parade, you've got to be on the right float and the
float must have music and other people so that when it stops,
you can then put on a little show and then that's fun.
But if you're just sitting, it's just.
Yeah, if you have a, if you have a concept in the float, 'cause I
like the Mickey's float, which is the fire truck.
Yeah, but that's the exact right float.
They have a concept. They have Go Go boys, they have
drag Queens and they have music. It's perfect.
Now there was that's a perfect. There's controversy because they
don't want to see fetish stuff at Pride and they don't want to
see naked guys. They don't want to see people as
pups. They don't want to see.
What do they want to see? Family friendly things.
OK, they could have a different foot.
They could go to Disney. Right.
The Disney parade, like, look, I just feel that pride started as
a March. Pride started and where we all
we as marginalized people and within our community there's
even more marginalized people all got a chance to be out loud
and proud, wear their fetish on their sleeve.
Who? Whatever you are, that's the joy
of pride. That's what pride is.
Pride. Like in in in I think both New
York and LA they would start the the parade off with the dykes on
bikes. Always first.
And that right 'cause they're, you know why they're doing
security, they're making sure. The.
Warriors. Titties to the floor.
I was like damn awesome titties. I love titties on my back on
those bikes. And like, we don't need to
please straight people and families should go to family
pride. OK, It's just or, or just get
used to it. Well, I mean, just understand
that pride is an adult thing. Even here they have the whole
leather and fetish. It's a separate.
It's a separate like section like.
Right. But that's like for the that's
in the festival, they would have like a rope or like, you know, a
blocked off area where you thought like, oh God, are people
having sex? And they're not.
No it's not. It's just a Flyers for leather
companies and things. And then a whipping booth.
Right, although there's always some weird whipping booth.
I am not pro homogenized pride where everyone has to just this
is how pride goes. Pride is, and if you don't like
it, then don't go to pride, right?
Or just like under tell your children that human bodies are
human bodies and people dressed in weird.
Yeah, the the pups are my favorite actually.
I look forward to them every year because I I don't see them
that often. Because they sniff your butt.
They're hot and there's leather pup masks and their leashes and
their collars. I know, I know.
I want to be Cruella Deville and just have 101 Dalmatian boys.
Oh, that can be arranged, Teddy. I was in Palm Springs.
I think all of your your people were there, you know.
Oh my. God.
So I thought we would. Me and Teddy both were like,
when was the first gay pride parade?
So we decided to do a little search.
We did a little. Research.
So that we could give you the facts.
Now the the in 65, the gay rights protest movement was
visible at the annual reminder pickets, which were organized,
of course, by the lesbians, the Daughters of Bilitis.
I love that name. I do love a 60s Greek and Roman
reference because I feel like there were more.
And, of course, the gay men's group Mattachine Society.
Shout out to the Mattachine Society.
You still out there? Y'all was listening.
Hello they're. Still.
I mean, Mattachine is still going sweetie.
And what? A great name though.
It's just such a flawless name. We're members of the Imagine
Society. I mean cause and both these
groups were doing the work because they helped protest at
the United Nations at the White House in 65.
Can you imagine gay protests now still can get attacked and be,
you know, looked down upon by people and belittled and can you
and 65 there? Are my angels.
The homophobia. There's that pride, there's a
Pride five part series, documentary, I think it's on FX.
The pride. The Pride Have you watched it?
I haven't seen. It yet because I do one episode
is the 50s, one is the 60s, ones the 70s ones the 80s and ones
the 90s. It's brilliant.
I only start I only watch the 50s one, but when you watch
especially the lesbians in the 50s because there's nothing like
a 50s lesbian. Honey, honey, she is your gym
teacher. She has that hair, dude.
She's wearing pedal pushers. She looks like Laura Petrie on
the Dick Van Dyke show and she is Dyken.
They did the work. I love that you said that they
did the work if it wasn't for them and the men, too, They were
like they talk about in this documentary about how a lot of
people were saying in the 50s they were very closeted and very
sad, and it's not like it is today.
And there was a professor on kind of debating that, saying
no, no, no, they were not very sad.
They were vocal. They were out there and they had
a good time. And there was actually footage
of underground dances, and they had a blast.
And I look at them and once again, my heart goes out to
them. They're angels to me because
they did the work. 'Cause they were prosecuted and
persecuted and. Their life was on the line just
'cause they wanted to go out and dance.
But. You know what?
We're very resilient. We'll always find a way to help.
Honey, we find Dick. Now, so these groups were
protesting, but then of course, June 28th, 1969, people rioted
at Stonewall. And that is kind of where the
heart of the Pride movement really came from, you know, and
that was a group of transvestites, transgender
people, queers, hustlers, homeless youth, all the people
that were there. And they said, we're not taking
it anymore because that raid on the on Stonewall was thought to
be just a normal raid. They were expecting to come in,
fuck shit up and all. You know, I was watching a clip
of Sylvia Rivera, who was at the Pride parade, I mean, at the
Stonewall. And she was talking about how,
you know, all the gay bars were owned by the mob.
And so they had a thing with the police where they'd be like, OK,
on this day of the month, you can come in and do this.
But they were not expecting the fact it's the queers, the trans
and the rest to. Fight back, honey.
Fight back. That's it.
So then since then, and that was kind of what sort of inspired
more the the pride, the gay pride, gay rights, gay
liberation movement. Then we go to like 1970 where
the Chicago Gay Liberation organized a March from
Washington Square Park to the water tower and they chose that
date because that was the date Stonewall happened on a
Saturday. So then pride became on a Sunday
and then that's when parades really started happening.
Now West Coast they did start doing shit like that too.
So in in 1970 there was a gay in on June 28th that.
Sounds good, where was that? I would love to have been at
that gay in. And then there was a March on
June 28th in Los Angeles. So in San Francisco there was
the gay in Los Angeles there was the March, the March.
And that, you know, that is kind of where things kept going.
And but believe me, the city was not helpful in all of this.
No, I mean, the March was actually a March, I mean, before
it became a parade every year when they would do that.
And I love looking at the vintage photos and the the the
footage of that. They're literally just citizens,
our gay brothers and sisters just walking down the street
with signs, chanting, marching, silent however they wanted to.
And that, that's what I I, I love and miss how it became
Wells Fargo. I don't know when that happened.
Well, money came into play. That was when they when they
wanted to show their support. And we realized that we had
money to spend and that they should on Pride month.
Month, yeah. It was January, it was June
28th, now it's the whole month, which I love that the whole
month is gay Pride month. I love that, I love that.
But Wells Far and Disney, you know when Disney comes out with
I had to go to the pride parade one year for my nephew 'cause he
wanted those rainbow Mickey Mouse sticker, which is just
like the Mickey Mouse years. And we waited in that damn pride
line and there they were coming out Mickey Mouse.
But Disney doesn't like officially acknowledge it.
Like they're in the parade, they have the support, but it's not
technically officially acknowledged.
Which was what pisses me off. You know, like they have gay
days at Disney. That's not official either.
Right, that's true. They're doing a delicate dance.
I feel like Disney. I just watched Cruella with a
fully out gay character right in the next two.
And. I've got to be like, who's the
other one? Her.
Her little assistant with the big black glasses and the goofy
hair. Yeah.
And then Arty. The oh right 2 Queens stand
before me. So you know, Disney is always
doing a delicate dance. You're right.
But they I would say that they're doing their pretty good.
Ain't nothing gayer than a Disney queen, honey.
Well, now this is an interesting thing.
So when they were trying to do that, that March in 1970, they
were trying to do a parade down Hollywood Blvd., but they
couldn't get a permit for the city.
Of course. Now the police chief said, as
far as I'm concerned, granting a permit to a group of homosexuals
to parade down Hollywood Blvd. would be the same as giving a
permit to a group of thieves and robbers.
Are you serious? Yes, this is 1970, sweetie,
because that's when we were deviants.
They called it a deviant bar. Still in the book of psychology
as a deviancy. So the police did grant the
permit. The fees were 1.5 million of.
Course there's there's where money.
That's where the money started. And then ACLU stepped in and
they dropped all the requirements except for the
$1500 fee for police service. And then that got thrown out
too, because good old California Superior Court ordered the
police for five protection, as they would to any other group.
Did Miss Maxine Waters lead that?
But I mean, the original pride was dangerous to be at because a
parade of deviants down the street especially could easily
be attacked. And I'm sure that made the news.
And on the news, they said a parade of deviants walk down
Hollywood Blvd. this afternoon. Yeah, and then the advocate said
over 1000 homosexuals and their friends staged not just a
protest March, but a full blown parade down world famous
Hollywood Blvd. And.
Now Hollywood Blvd. Look at it honey, when I talk
about deviants. Seriously, straight people were
the worst deviants. Now it looks like now that the
that the Christopher St. W Parade, That's the people that
organized the original 1. They're moving back to Hollywood
Blvd. and the city of West Hollywood is doing their own.
Look at that. There's going to be two Pride
parades double. Pride.
They did that for Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.
Halloween used to be the Hollywood Blvd.
Carnival and then the Santa Monica Blvd. carnival.
But all the straights come down and want to look at the Queens
that they made it all one. They do the same thing with
pride. Now look at this.
And so they were doing the same work Brown the same time in New
York and they they're the New York original pride parade was
Christopher St. Liberation Day.
OK. And then, girl, they were doing
it in Philly, too. Philly I, I, I did go do a
Philly Pride when I moved back to Philly and Philly Pride was
great as well. Philly, I like them when they're
a little bit more localized. Even New York, as big as it is,
it still feels like a little community to me when it becomes
ginormous and corporate, and I hate to keep using Wells Fargo
because I really like them and I bank with them.
When it becomes that corporate, then it's like, it's not to me.
It's not pride. It's like, what are we doing
here? Right.
It's just an advertisement for corporations that want us to
believe that they support us and it's question.
For one month you can order your checks with a rainbow flag on
it. Like, you know, give me a break.
Now it's interesting cause in the 80s that's when things kind
of shifted cause originally it was the gay liberation parade.
Then when the new activists of a less radical nature took over,
they dropped liberation or gave freedom, and they called it gay
pride. OK, I'm a I'm a for that.
It's OK. It's OK though.
Liberation is fantastic. They we need to go back to.
Liberation, gay, free, I mean, 'cause they, the original Pride
was a a day of commemoration. And you know, I think that's
something to remember when we do these parades again.
I would like to see, I mean I know we need the corporate
sponsors to fund Pride, but I am one of the things model and my
issues about the Pride parade. Especially in West Hollywood was
that it looked cheap. Yeah, I agree with.
You, it looked. Cheap the whole thing and it
looked about everything. Wonky and I feel that we as a
queer group love it, are the most creative, smart, visually
accurate, stunning. Preach, McGovern, Preach.
People in the world, we create everything beautiful in the
world of fashion, architecture, design, style, music, I mean all
of it. We're there, We're there.
We're there. We've invented everything, OK,
we're there. What I want to see is a well
funded, stunning, gorgeous. Stunning.
Gay pride parade. And festival.
I'm with it. That takes your breath away from
the beauty. And I understand that that's a
new thing that you would have to do.
Like if I would suddenly became a billionaire, I would be
putting on be funded the Parade of Life.
I would take it on as a as a nonprofit project.
It would be called the beautification of the Pride
Parade. And let me tell you, I would
hire the Julie Taymor animal, The Lion King groups.
I would get every designer, all the gay designers, not Dolce
Gabbana, all the gay designers. I would call upon all the queer
people in the community to do their.
Service I mean. Gay Pride Sunday.
I agree with you to make it the most beautiful and stunning
parade of the year. I don't want to just see like I
I'm fine with Mickey's Fire truck, Go go's, whatever, but
like Wells Fargo employees holding a Wells Fargo banner or
cars with the thing on the side. And believe me, I was riding in
the back of that dumb car. I don't want that car.
I want to see beauty and stunning.
I want this. I want fireworks at the end.
I want I want the electrical light parade from Disney.
Okay, yes, but instead of the theme song from that from the
electric light parade, we're going to hear and they'll.
Like all the lights would. Go up and then coming from the
sky from a helicopter, it's Kevin Ambience.
He's hanging on the ladder of the helicopter and they drop him
down. Then RuPaul does a flyby in a
jet. You don't know that it's him,
but he's there and it has pink smoke and the pink smoke drops
non non harmful to the to the environment.
Glitter glitter. Bird friendly glitter.
Bird friendly glitter drops and the music thumbs up.
Then the lights that are along the parade route all start
coming up. It's not just a street anymore,
sweetie, it's a runway. The ghost of Aretha Franklin is
projected onto a. Gigantic.
Screen and she has a person she's saying yeah and.
Pride. And then I want to see like some
of those small organizations get given gigantic budgets to work
with. No embezzling.
OK, we're going to have very strict.
Looks as Fargo needs to give P flag money.
Right, exactly. All those big instead of like I
want to see them invest the money in the beauty of the
float. Yeah, we don't want some rickety
pickup, honey. No, it's just not enough.
I want more for the gay. We need like we need like the
the the Rose Bowl parade. Exactly, exactly.
I want inspiration from the Rose Bowl.
I want inspiration from Hollywood.
I want inspiration from the Super Bowl.
Like. You said we have that talent
pool. We do.
I mean, all the stars have to do up here for free, Lady Gaga,
everybody else. It has to be a public service.
That is a problem. We need jets.
We need pink smoke, we need glitter, we need floats.
We need major. Holograms of The Golden Girls.
OK, we need. Thank you for being a friend
this bad. Exactly.
I mean like I'm like holograms of all the gay stars from the
past Sylvester hologram. I mean I just want to see like
how about 100 sylvesters all in one?
That is brilliant to. Celebrate.
Let's start it. Let's can we do?
It the Marsha P Johnson Memorial float covered in thousands of
real flowers. Everybody wearing that little
wreath of flowers. I mean, exactly why can't we
have the most beautiful break? And I know it's because the
problem is these are this is these organizations are always
trying to make money and because they have to survive, so they
have to take these things. And everybody like you can pay
your $2000.00, but then you don't have any money leftover
for a nice float. So you're just doing the car
down the street. I'm sorry.
It has to be a bigger thing telling Maritha, wouldn't it?
What? OK, what do you think of my
idea? Oh, makes you get up.
Did. You get up for that.
Because that's right, I mean, comment below.
What else do you think should happen in?
Our Yeah, but you know what? We could.
We could televise it like they do the Rose Bowl Parade, and the
sponsorship from that could pay for the damn freaking the whole
thing. Exactly.
I mean, just the like, maybe you need to pay to get into the
parade or no, there's just corporate sponsorship.
Corporate sponsorship, the whole sponsorship.
You know, like when you watch the Macy's Day Parade on
Thanksgiving morning, that should be like on, on Pride.
On Pride morning, you wake up and you watch the most flawless
parade you've ever seen. The most the stunning.
I mean, I'm sure I didn't get to go to World Pride, but I'm sure
World Pride Parade was a little more in this vein.
But I want to see it bigger. Maybe this is a job for New York
Pride. Maybe LA can't handle it.
But we are, I always thought, the new.
York, epicenter of. That's it.
The New York pride, I thought, was always bigger and more
glamorous, and then the LA one I always felt was wonder rinky.
You're right. You're absolutely.
Right. And like, I was like, why?
We're in Hollywood. This should be the.
Fighting, it's daunting, it's fighting it's inner inner inner
office fighting amongst who's going to sponsor it?
Who's going to do this? Does the city of Weho have it or
does the city of LA have it? Or is downtown because downtown
pride was fun? You know what, they did do a
much better job with DTLA Pride. And the other thing I liked
about DTLA Pride was as much as I liked hosting Dua Lipa and
Christina Aguilera and whatever, there was like no local gay
performers at all other than me and one or two other people.
And that was, and the one, the thing they did at DTLA Proud was
they it was all local performers the whole day.
They had big acts too. And it was.
It was done well too. I like, I like very well.
I love the whole big rainbow DTLA like how they had that.
Out yeah and they had a whole they turned the park into like a
whole thing I thought that was that was more in the vein in
which I would like to see but I am looking for a billion dollar
contribution from corporate sponsors and make the pride
parade into some. Send the check to Malibu Time.
Beautiful. We will turn it and we will
turn. Manage the money.
We won't embezzle it, but I'm hoping.
I mean, I think. Hologram idea of all gay gay
stars I mean we need to float with Charles Nelson Riley and.
They're all waving, Yeah, they're all waving, and we're
all paying tribute to them. I love it.
We could have the Dick Sargent from Bewit.
All the gay ones. Liberace.
Liberace needs her own float, honey.
Sweetie, I mean, or how about animatronics where they they
like Liberace's? They're playing the organ line
from pride to deeper love. I wish my brother George was
here. Oh my God, that's brilliant.
Now. So God, but God bless the gaze
that came before us. Honey, they were the angels.
They're still my and my heart really goes out to that when I
see that. That documentary is beautiful
for that reason alone. Agreed 100%.
Sweetie, have you seen the Balenciaga pride?
When you sent me, you sent me that Balenciaga shirt that says
gay, yes, pink. I gagged.
That's flawless. And it's just my size.
It's the oversized Balenciaga sweatshirt.
It says gay. It looks like you.
It's almost in the Gap format. Font.
I mean, Balenciaga as of late is giving you here's something you
could buy in Spreadshirt 2 years ago, but it's by us Balenciaga
and I'm kind of living I'm OK with.
That we we should get matching Balenciaga gay sweatshirts
fantastic. $1200 Why? Because Balenciaga is still a
Balenciaga. Balenciaga.
I was in Neiman's last week. Every time I go there, I think
of you. How can?
You go to Neiman's without me. Because I went with my sister
and we were there and they have. They didn't have any of the
Pride collection though. But those Balenciaga oversized
everything was flawless. They have for the ladies a
Balenciaga like Madonna style sports bra with a rainbow thing
at the bottom. They taps that say gay they.
Did a good job, they did. It.
I'll take it. I'll take it and I'll enjoy it.
Of course, it's too hot to wear a sweater right now, but Versace
is also doing it. They have.
Their Pride collection includes
a rainbow jock. Strap which did you see the
rainbow jock strap? I did.
It's kind of flawless. It's like a black jock and it's
got the rainbow on waistband, the waistband which is so hot.
Yes. It's hot, let me tell you.
That's Donatella. She knows her gay jock straps.
You know, I love that Pride merch has gotten to this point
because, you know, I don't mind a rainbow Fanny pack and rainbow
flags and all that stuff. But this is taking it to another
level. And once again, it's raising
awareness. And I'm, I'm here for it.
I'm living for it. I would appreciate if some of
this money went to a gay 'cause from these things, but we'll
take what we can get at this one moment right now.
I mean, I didn't go into detail. I don't know what they're doing
with the profits, but I mean they can't be selling that much.
Although the Balenciaga sweatshirt I think is sold out
of. Course it is every They only
make limited amounts of all those things, so by the time you
see them and know they exist, they're sold out.
Check. Check China.
Maybe if we go to Ross, they'll have the the rejects.
Very unlikely though I would say it's possible that like at a
outlet store or like a like for the high end, like an off 5th or
one of those other places. It's possible or you know, where
would they where they would have it if it was, if it's still open
and I don't think it is, they would have had them at Century
21. Oh yes, you know what I mean?
Like that's where it's 'cause that's not like normal outlet,
which is products made for the outlet stores.
Century 21 sweetie, you could get some fats.
Well, shit, it's like the real real.
You ever go into the real real on the corner there of the?
Yeah, but Century 21 had a little better of a selection.
The real real they have 27 dollars $27,000 I was.
Gonna say the prices were better like.
Give me a break. 'Cause they have that supreme
Louis Vuitton. I mean Under Armour has a pride
collection, Tilly's has a pride collection.
I mean now everybody, everyone has a pie collection now and
then. Not that long ago, not everyone
did. Not that long ago, no one did.
You had to go to like a a party store to find your your gay
merch. Well everyone, happy pride.
Happy pride. Remember that all of our rights
today are built on the backs of people who fought for us and for
our kind of people for decades. So let's remember them and thank
them and try to love each other. Live.
Laugh live, laugh live out of bottles of poppers.
Thank you, Richie. All right, guys, We love you.
Happy. Wait, hold on a second.
Happy. Happy, Happy.
I can't get it to go right. Exactly.
Just a second. Happy.
Oh, well, it's not right. I'll take it.
I get out of bed, I put on the clothes 'cause I've got bills to
pay night, but I don't need it. I've got a strong wind too, so
that I've. Got a
happy Friday everyone, we love you and I hope you have a
wonderful month and be proud. Not
my feeling. And I call.
Him.