REPRESENTING

Chicago's Rainbow Coalition Celebrates Gay Pride

RAIN HAD THREATENED THE GAY PARADE. BUT BY LATE MORNING THE SUN OUTED ITSELF AND WAS FOLLOWED BY THE RAINBOW.

Gay and straight and young and old and male and female converged on Chicago's Boystown Sunday afternoon to partake in the 41st year of the Gay Pride Parade. Drag queens sashayed, roller skaters zigzagged, and beefy boys in glittery briefs gyrated toward the crowd.

Fun and fluids spilled into the street as an event that started out as struggle for sexual freedom became a celebration of the movement's success. About 250 registered entries, some as loud as the vuvuzela, blared their support for Gay America. The fight for equality may be ongoing in workplaces and in courthouses, but along these approximately 30 city blocks -- and in other cities all around the U.S. Sunday -- freedom was evident in this rainbow coalition.

"If others don't want to accept me, I have hundreds of thousands of people who will accept me," a "jubilant" Katie Spain told the Chicago Tribune. "They'll love me for who I am."