AIDS Remembrance Ribbon on the Second Street Bridge
Today was one of those glorious days when you remember what keeps you living in the River City. The skies were blue, the temperatures mild, and a light breeze swept across the city. The 16th Louisville AIDS Walk was today. I got to the Belvedere just before they closed off the Main Street, and I had plenty of time to play anthropologist (i.e., people watch). One of the things that I like about events like it, is that same sex couples can hold hands or have other PDAs that straight people take for granted. I watched the runners start the 5K, saw and talked with some people I knew. I tweeted about the event, and had a wolf’s good time. I even saw a couple of guys worth lusting after, but that’s another tale. It was also impressive that Mayor Abramson and Congressman Yarmuth came to the event. I noticed that neither of the Commonwealth’s senators were in attendance.
Soon enough it was time to head down to Main Street and get ready to start this year’s walk. We got in place, the count down began, and we were off. The crowd included plenty of people from the LGBTQI community as well as straights and the undeclared. There were drag queens and leather lords, frat boys and women of a certain age, middle aged men and children. There were even a few pups (of both four and two legged varieties) walking the walk. Blacks, Whites, Asians, Jews, Christians, UUs, and people of no particular persuasion all had on their walking shoes. The route led across the Second Street Bridge to Southern Indiana, circled around and came back. I think it’s about a three mile trek. Placed along the route were bins filled with ice and bottles of water, and there were wading pools filled with water for the dogs.
Thanks to some very nice sponsors, I was able to bring $315 to the total. I’m not certain of the total for the Walk itself, but I’m hoping it was huge. I’m already looking forward to next year’s walk, and I’m thinking of doing some volunteer work as well.
