Went down to the Vancouver Farmer’s Market yesterday before my hair appointment. I figured that it was a great place to get some lunch and maybe some stuff to fix dinner, as well as scope out some garden ideas for the new house. Turns out that today was also the day of Vancouver’s Pride Festival. I wandered through the booths, looking to see if an old friend was still involved with Pride organizations, but I didn’t see her. Picked up some lunch and sat near the stage where a gal was belting out Melissa Ethridge tunes. (You get ME’s CD collection with your GLBTQ membership packet – hahahah – old joke.)
A couple of older guys in overalls who looked like they had left their tractor idling in the parking lot while they came to the park to stir up a hornet’s nest showed up with picket signs proclaiming conservative views about God, the bible, America, farms, the devil, and so on. I noticed right away that a few people went over there to make jokes around them or start arguing with them. I even thought about putting together a sign to attach to their signs that says, “I have nothing better to do that spread hatred among my fellow man” or “I have nothing better to do than cause trouble on a perfectly nice Saturday afternoon.”
I was actually quite impressed that there were no more than two protesters. Either Vancouver’s Pride Festival is too small to be considered a serious “threat” to conservative people, or the conservative movement is losing people interested in waving picket signs and arguing with people in rainbow shirts on a perfectly lovely Saturday afternoon.
Either way, the organizer of the festival took the stage and offered to donate a dollar to the Pride Organization for every minute that the protesters stuck around, and a few other people signed up to do the same thing, and the protesters left a few minutes later, riling a few tempers on the way before jumping into their tractor to meander their way home.
I went through more of the Farmer’s Market after I finished my lunch, but it was a bit too hot out to appreciate the merchants whose wares I saw almost every week, so I headed to Main Street and the antiques shops. (I had a lot of time to kill before my hair appointment.)