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.

Multi-media man Larry Bob Roberts is one busy San Franciscan and has been for some years now. In addition to constantly updating his ten-year old, popular Queer things to do in the San Francisco Bay Area list on his SFQueer site, he is also often involved in some worthy community activity. Additionally Larry Bob is an active musician and member of the band Winsome Griffles about whom the London Observer Music Monthly wrote, "The gay politik is equally present in the swish Americana of the Winsome Griffles," and whose new debut CD Meet The Griffles (available at Amoeba SF) is just out. This week, on Thursday, Dec. 13th, the group will perform a release party at the Eagle SF.

AMOEBLOG: Long before your online list existed you used to do a zine. Can you talk a bit about it?
 
LARRY BOB: I started Holy Titclamps in 1989, inspired by queer punk zines like JDs and Homocore. I did the zine for 15 years and published writing and art by all sorts of people -- published novelists, prisoners, high school kids. Material from the earlier issues is on the website, and the later issues can be ordered from me.

AMOEBLOG: Can you describe your Queer Things to do in the San Francisco Bay Area list on your SFQueer.com website?

Gary Floyd deserves major credit, not just for being such a talented artist but for being an openly gay front person of a punk band in Texas in the late seventies/early eighties. And this he boldly did as the powerhouse vocalist for legendary hardcore punk band The Dicks, the self-described "commie faggot" blues-derived, hardcore punk band who released their brilliant, rage-fueled first single, "Dicks Hate the Police," in 1980 on (fellow Austin punks) MDC's R Radical record label. This song, which many later learned via Mudhoney's cover version or (Gary's next band) Sister Double Happiness performing it, is a timeless punk classic (see lyrics below) and is currently available on The Dicks 1980-1986 on Alternative Tentacles. After the Dicks' demise, the tireless Gary Floyd, who has lived in San Francisco for the past 25 years, went on to form Sister Double Happiness, Black Kali Ma, the Gary Floyd Band, Hard Ride and currently, the raw blues/country Gary Floyd and the Buddha Brothers. Last week the Buddha Brothers performed at the Make Out Room in San Francisco on a bill with Penelope Houston, who sings on one their songs ("Take it Like A Man") and who joined them onstage. This week and next week Gary will be in the studio with the Buddha Brothers recording new tracks. Last week on my radio show on WFMU I had the opportunity to catch up with Gary, who in addition to music also paints, to talk about Austin, being queer, and how the formation of the Dicks was based on a lot drinking and telling lies.

GARY FLOYD: I started putting up posters around town (Austin) saying that The Dicks are playing and I would make up club names. So it was just a poster band. It was a lie. So I put up these things saying The Dicks are playing. And people would say "Oh you're in The Dicks?" And I would say 'Yeah' and they would lie to me and say 'Oh I've seen The Dicks' and I would look at them and think (laughs) 'You're a bigger liar than I am!' And then I met Buxf (Parrot) and Glen (Taylor) one night and they wanted to be in a band. And then we got Pat (Deason) and we started The Dicks. It was all started with a lot of drinking and a lot of lying.