Not only was Sunday's incredibly fun, huge rave-scale 2008 San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration & Parade the best party of the year so far but it was also a landmark historic event: one that marked the California Supreme Court very recently making it legal (second to Massachusetts) for same-sex couples to marry. And this significant step forward (in a long uphill battle) for human rights clearly was prominently on the minds of the revelers who descended upon San Francisco this past weekend.

Sunday afternoon's giant celebration was essentially a really, really large wedding party since so many in attendance had just gotten hitched in the days leading up to the event. Included were the happy couple pictured left in front of City Hall where, they cheerfully informed me, they had gotten married two days before.

The first part of Sunday's mega-event was the long colorful parade that slowly snaked down Market and left onto Eighth Street, and along whose route Mayor Gavin Newsom got numerous ovations for his role in pushing the envelope in the same-sex marriage issue, starting four years ago shortly after he took office.

The parade was immediately followed by the "celebration" portion of the long fun afternoon. This giant party kicked into gear from the get-go and the energy didn't let up all day. The sprawling celebration extended for blocks in every direction and featured over twenty different stages in addition to countless spaces and booths that took over all the streets around the Civic Center area of downtown San Francisco.

Even in a multicultural, polyglot city like L.A. (which has the largest population of Asian-Americans (1.4 million) in the country and where the percentage of the population which is Asian-American is roughly equal to that which is black) most discussions of race appear to still be framed in the outmoded, bipolar terms of  black and white.  For example, whereas a lot of people and many organizations honor Black History Month, Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month is almost completely unrecognized except by some Asian-Americans. The centuries-long struggle and strife of blacks in America is well-documented and worth honoring- but Asians have also been subjected to legal segregation, racist violence, widespread discrimination and harassment. So why is it that the Asian-American experience is so downplayed?

According to polls, 23% of Americans are uncomfortable voting for an Asian-American to be President of the United States. This is in contrast to 15% compared with an African-American candidate and 14% compared with a woman candidate. A lot of Asians are suspected and viewed of holding allegiances to Asia, and not the U.S. which plays into the "perpetual foreigner" syndrome. True, many Asians are more recent immigrants than the white or black population but even Asians born in America often speak, in my experience,  of "Americans" only in the third person. Last year, coming up with movies to showcase for APA Heritage Month resulted in the suggestion of Chinese Kung Fu movies the distinction between Asians in Asia and Asians in America remains a lot harder than distinguishing African-Americans from Africans or white people from Europeans partly because America loves Asian movies and Korean dramas seem to show at all hours of the day, but Hollywood almost never casts Asian-Americans in anything and, to date, there have only been three TV shows to focus on Asian-Americans.

Had his life being spared assassination on that tragic evening of April 4th 1968 in Memphis, TN when that fatal shot rang out - last Tuesday would have been Martin  Luther King, Jr's 79th birthday.
But today (January 21st) is the official day to honor the legacy of the American leader when many businesses and schools are closed in observance of the great man.

If you click elsewhere on this Amoeba site under Amoeba Music Celebrates the Spirit of MLK you will get linked to a wonderful resource of information including events today (and this past week) in LA, SF, and the East Bay all related to MLK Jr.  plus audio stream excerpts of two of the most famous speeches by the always powerful orator -  I've Been to the Mountaintop  and  I Have  A Dream  (watch the video version of this famous speech in DC on August 28th, 1963 below - scroll all the way down).

Martin Luther King Jr  was consistently a devoted and dedicated fighter for civil rights for members of his race, and as a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading  organization of its kind in the nation, he was primed, in late 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great  Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the  United States, the bus boycott.

That boycott, which lasted  a little over a year, ended when the Supreme Court of the  United States declared unconstitutional the laws requiring  segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as  equals.  But what I find most impressive about Martin Luther King Jr. is that he so rigidly believed in what he was protesting that he personally suffered greatly from his beliefs. During the long days of the boycott not only was he arrested, but his home  was bombed and he was subjected to much personal abuse.  I can't help but ponder that kind of commitment by a political leader and wonder what American leaders today would actually stay the course as King once did?

Check out this moving speech recently made by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, at which he is joined by his wife Rana at his side, and in which he explains why he changed his mind on the issue of signing the resolution in support of gay marriage. This brave civic leader and former Chief of Police, who is clearly emotional throughout this  September 19th speech, says that in coming to his decision had to, "Reflect and search my soul for the right thing to do.....to take a stand on the behalf of equality and social justice.."  And he notes the fact that some of his friends, colleagues, and family members are gay and lesbian - citing his eldest of two daughters, Lisa, as well as some of his staff members. Already critics of Sanders, who is Republican, have bashed him saying that he only made the decision because of his daughter being gay and that he doesn't deserve kudos for being brave or for having integrity. But I disagree. I say he is truly practicing "family values" and I commend this man a 100% and just wish we had more civic leaders and politicians who would even admit that they had made a wrong decision. YouknowwhatI'masyin? But what do you think? Add COMMENTS below. Thanks!