The RULES of NYC PRIDE!

The past few years I’ve made it to many of the Pride celebrations in the north east, New Jersey, Brooklyn, Philly, Boston, Baltimore, and NYC. This year I only made it to Queens and NYC, but I did it up and had a blast!

I learned a few tricks about my beloved NYC Pride after the past few years.

RULE 1: No High-maintenance bitches. This may sound hard, being at pride and all, but you can make it happen. Be strong!

RULE 2: Marching in the parade is a LOT less stressful than trying to watch on the sidelines crammed in with a billion smelly drunk people you don’t know.

RULE 3: Avoid actual gay bars. They will be crowded with tourists, might have covers and are might even have lines to get in when they never usually would. Instead only go to Gay “parties” that happen at bars that are normally straight.

So here’s what I did this year.

My pals Tyler and Daniel (two of the most chill and easy going people I know) marched with me and The Trevor Project through the heat and long distance of the NYC pride parade. From 41st street to Christopher Street we screamed our lungs off, danced and cheered our way through the parade route. I saw a TON of friends watching on the sidelines. It always makes me smile to see familiar faces shining back at me. Parade = success!
We then hopped down to the Lower East Side to meet Dan Chiz at GUMBO‘s “A Sunday Kind Of Love” rooftop pool party where our new pal Lucio was hosting a swanky area by the pool. Got to see a lot of the girls I’ve been missing a lot, including Dan Corton, Ryan, Jon, John, Bradley and more. After watching some tipsy boys swim around the pool we moved on to meet Marti G Cummings and his Bottom Brigade at the Sky Room for Summer Camp.

Then the party started.

We danced, we sang, we got in trouble for crawling on white couches, and I personally was reprimanded for climbing a pole or two. We let loose. It was the perfect amount of crowded. I forgot all the 5,000 things I had to deal with and relaxed a bit. Exactly what I needed. The boys I spent my day with are all truly incredible and I love them all for being so low maintenance and chill.

Pride 2012 was a win.