TheDesertSun.com – Kakie Urch
Leather vests, rainbow-spangled baseball hats covering white hair, rainbow suspenders, rainbow dog kerchiefs and that special blend of tourism, rodeo, retirement, youth, Gay Pride and real estate.
It?s the 20th year of Palm Springs Pride, a two-day festival dedicated to celebrating the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in a city measured by the Census as one of the ?gayest? per capita in the United States.
Rick Bard, 45, of Salisbury, N.C. came to town for five days for the Pride Festival and to visit friends. He said he had not been to Palm Springs Pride, but had been to Palm Springs for vacation before.
?I think it?s a welcome embrace to the cultural diversity of the town, ? said Bard, who has been out for 25 years, he said. ?It?s nice to see couples from the young to the old. I?ve been to Pride events before (in other cities) where everybody is.?
Bard said he was most looking forward to Dykes on Bikes, who returned to the parade this year with 17 motorcycles.
He admits the other thing he likes about Pride is ?the dyed poodles.?