Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 2 - Signs of the Times (alpha) - 6.24.12

I took over 1500 pictures at the parade.  Fifteen. Hundred.  Eight gigs worth. 

Even once I tossed them in my iPad and got rid of the utter crap, I still had 900 shots that had value of some sort.  Now some of them are marker shots for me.  The picture of the group sign so that when I go to post the picture that I actually want I can reference the right group, things like that.  But still, sorting and labeling and cropping and color adjusting... it's gonna take a while to get through all this. :)

And then I had to find a starting place. I'm not keen on just going chronologically.  If people wanted that they could just go to the parade (or watch it on the news/Youtube/whatever if Chicago isn't geographically convenient).

So I had to sort into thematic groups.  Then decide which theme went first... anyway, an event like this gets a little time intensive when trying to blog it.

I've decided that my first theme will be signs.  If for no other reason than it's a theme I have for so many of the non-nature events I seem to cover.  

 I love the color in this one.  I mean, sure, the sentiments are awesome, but speaking photographically, the colors in these signs really pop.

 If you can't read this one, it says, "1975 - AT&T adopts a non-discrimination policy towards sexual orientation."  AT&T also had one about how early they offered same sex partner benefits, but I didn't get a good shot of it. :(  Anyway, 1975 is pretty impressive.  That's only 6 years after the Stonewall Riots.  Amazingly, in the US, there are still companies and organizations that still don't include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination language. :( - again.

 Legalizing gay marriage in Illinois was a big theme this year.  Last year everyone was celebrating the very recent legislation in New York and this year we had the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and Civil Unions in Illinois, but that just spurs people into wanting *full* equality.

 Another ACLU sign.

And this sign from Office Max.  It's cute... I just know that it is, unfortunately, still not the world's greatest idea with some employers.

On the flipside, I did love their balloon art.  the big balls are their signature rubber band ball.  The balloon Pride Flag I put up on yesterday's post was theirs too.

Okay, tomorrow (probably several 'tomorrow's) will be more signs.  I'm actually still doing a lot of the sorting and editing, but there were buckets and buckets of signs that caught my interest.  :)