"It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up, world except for my Lola..."

I have gone to Pride parades since the mid 1970s.

Of course I was young and so my personal experience might be colored by that fact.  I do remember, and I think the parades seemed wilder, that there was less of the 'other' that attended.

But then, I see in Stockholm, the fire department, the teachers union, the police, proud parents, the rainbow families (same sex couple with children), local stores that are akin to 7-11- the pressbyran, printed flags that said essentially 'dyke-bryan, home-byran, trans-byran' and so on.

Even the churches and government offices march!  This makes me happy that here, the parade is attended by so many different areas of society.  Also so many kids are out, in outfits full of individual expression, dancing and having a good time in the parade.

Of course the hot topic was Russia.  I was intrigued by the amount of signes that were printed in Russian, Swedish and English.  I thought this was very global minded, that people knew that photos of their signs very likely would make it into the world press. There were many, many signs deploring Russia.  There were signs for what amounts to an injustice in Sweden such as not being allowed to transgender until the age of 18.

 Here are the Rainbow families, this is only a small segment, they were a very, very large group perhaps dominantly female couples but many male couples as well.

"Weapons of mass seduction!"

I have no idea who this skater was- but she was AMAZING.

 Today, the day of the PRIDE parade was one of our HOTEST days this year.  I think many people said to themselves as they dressed to leave their homes..."Or I could wear this bathing costume".