It Is Reallllllly Over....

Remember the day when the South End had a gay bookstore, gay-owned, operated and attended gay restaurants, and well, just a whole lotta gay stuff going on? Well, those days are over. The final nail in the coffin is the possibility that this year's Pride Parade might stray from its usual course and skip the South End altogether. Although the Pride Committee is fighting to keep the parade route status quo, construction on Columbus Ave. and Clarendon Street might thwart that plan, diverting the parade to a beacon hill/back bay route (and just to clarify, I do not suggest in any way that the Pride Committee has anything whatsoever to do with the possible diversion - the committee should be lauded for their efforts this and every year).

They might as well just march in Chestnut Hill.

I don't know which entity is putting up a potential roadblock, and thus where to assign the blame, but apparently someone might draw the conclusion that the South End isn't gay enough anymore to have a pride parade coursing through its well-heeled streets. A parade through Beacon Hill just doesn't quite cut it - the camaraderie along Tremont Street during a pride parade is unmistakable and cannot be duplicated in Beacon Hill, Commonwealth Avenue, South Boston, Saugus or wherever the hell they think they're going to move it. It sure send a message....

Well, we wouldn't want little Madison and Skyler in the dual Maclaren having to see gay people kissing while Megan and the new mommy group jockey for a table at Picco, would we? And poor Bernie and Estelle Fleishman over in Atelier 505, they shouldn't have to see the homos from their balcony. What those people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms is fine, but they don't have to flaunt it in front of our building. Or in front of the Butcher Shop window seats or anywhere in the South End where decent Uggs-wearing, Burberry scarf-toting, polar fleece-ensconced straight people congregate.

Last homo to leave, please pack up the rainbow flag.