Gay Pride Re-cap

As the street sweepers clear the glitter from the sidewalks and our cities fade back to their dull, non-rainbow colors, we bring you some dispatches from pride weekend.

As the street-sweepers dust away the glitter from our sidewalks and our cities fade back to dull, non-rainbow colors, we bring you some dispatches from pride weekend.

• Pride parades were Obama campaign targets. "At times, the parades could have been confused for Obama campaign rallies," Jeremy W. Peters wrote in The New York Times. Peters reported that 300 Obama campaign staff members and volunteers marched in Chicago chanting "Four more years!," that 200 Obama supporters walked New York City's parade route waving "powder-blue 'L.G.B.T. for Obama'  placards," and that the Obama campaign's L.G.B.T. outreach extended beyond these large cities to places like Council Bluffs, Iowa and Durango, Colorado. 
• The Pentagon will celebrate Pride Month. The military can but doesn't have to. Following Obama's lead a few weeks prior, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta sent a message to U.S. troops on June 15th, recognizing June as Gay Pride Month in the military. He stopped short, however, of directing commands and agencies to hold gay pride events, Rowan Scarborough reported in The Washington Times. On Tuesday, the Pentagon will hold its first celebration of gays openly serving in the military. 
• New York celebrated the one year anniversary of the state's same-sex marriage law. Cyndi Lauper grand marshal-ed the parade in New York City for hundreds of thousands of spectators, according to The Associated Press. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined the parade at noon, in time to make a proclamation to states without same-sex marriage laws: "The government should get out of your personal life." He and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn stood together, flanked by police officers, for the national anthem, "before a roar of motorcycles signaled the start of the parade with the Sirens lesbian bikers," because New York City does not take Pride lightly. 
• Harlem residents are coming further out of the closet. Many Harlem residents are noticing more pride in the neighborhood, which has recently become more accepting of the L.G.B.T. community, The New York Daily News reported.