During this year’s Philly Gay Pride Parade on June 13, the Philadelphians MC, the local gay men’s leather social group that I’m a member of, made sure that there was not a repeat of what happened the year before.  In last year’s parade the truck the club was using broke down on the intersection of Eight and Walnut Streets, where one of the hoses ruptured and dumped all of its transmission fluid onto the street.  With all the people yelling "Tranny fluid!" one might have mistakenly thought that a bunch of angry drag queens had decided to relieve themselves in the middle of the street.  Half of the group that were marching moved the truck off to the side and waited for the tow truck to arrive while the rest of us continued to march on the rest of the parade route.  The stain left from the breakdown would remain on the street for a few weeks.  Our club wanted to make a good impression on the parade, but not like that!

The truck the club used in this year’s parade, a new Ford F-150, went through the parade route without a hitch.  Draped on the truck was a bear flag and our club colors that featured our emblem.  The truck carried a couple of cases of bottled water for the marchers and speakers to blast out rock tunes.  At one point the speakers got disconnected from the truck’s stereo system, rending them mute for a moment until they quickly got connected again.

There were over a dozen people marching in this year’s leather contingent, the majority being members of the Philadelphians.  There were also a few members of the Keystone boys of Leather (for those not familiar with the leather community, "boys" are self-identified BDSM/kink submissives).  KboL has been around for two years and has gotten some new members, giving some fresh blood onto Philly’a gay leather/kink scene.  No outré outfits (such as being bare-assed in chaps) were worn by the marchers that day, though a few men wore kilts, which are popular in the leather community.

The official kick-off to the parade was at noon, but because we were the 45th of 48 contingents in this year’s lineup, we actually didn’t start marching until about 12:30pm.   The crowds were cheering us from the side as we made our way along the route.  When we got to Market Street, it was pretty much a start and stop affair for over the next hour since the contingents ahead of us were waiting their turn to pass by the judges’ stand just past Sixth and Market Streets.  At point the truck’s speakers blasted out a great mash-up of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s "Relax" and Wild Cherry’s "Play That Funky Music" and a fortysomething man with a pink FRANKIE SAY T-shirt came off the sidelines and playfully galloped around our contingent, which was one of the most memorable moments for us that day.  And when we got to on Eight and Market, we took a water bottle and "christened" the spot in memory of the truck had broke down last year.

We may not have had to deal with transmission fluid this year, but there was a different liquid we had to deal with—rain.  Shortly before 2:30pm while our group was a block away from the judge’s stand, it started to pour.  A couple of us had umbrellas, but the rest of us had to tough it out as we marched past the stand and continued to the end of the parade route which was by the entrance to Penn’s Landing.  The rained shorly stopped after that and the sky cleared, but some of the group decided to stay and attend the Philadelphia Gay Pride festival  while the rest went off to a couple of private parties.

That evening the Keystone boys of Leather held a post-parade barbeque cookout at that week’s WOOF! Philly at the Gold Club (on 1416 Chancellor Street).  The weekly WOOF! bear parties have been happening for over two years, and at its current Gold Club location since last August.  (Before that it was held at Sal’s on 12th before it was remade into Tabu.)  The KboL members made do with someone holding an umbrella over the table when it briefly rained about 6:00pm as they made a bunch of hot dogs and hamburgers.  The DJs spun house music and pop remixes, giving the crowd a good way to end the weekend.  The Philly leather scene may not be as big as some other cities, but it knows how to have fun and pride.