The Steampunk Santa crew with grand marshall Drew Lago and his companion.
While we lived here last year, I regret I was too exhausted from the Photos with Santa in 2021 to participate. This year both Shando and I participated. We were highly impressed with the whole shebang. We intend to be even better prepared next year when there will hopefully not be as much rain. I’m glad we all muddled through though!
In a very poignant gesture, Santa Tom Bilbo put a big pink “Q” at the back of the float, which represented our solidarity with our brothers and sisters who were targeted for being LGBTQ (as all of this float’s participants were in that category or an ally). It is also a symbol against gun violence and assault weapons being available for civilians, to paraphrase Tom when being interviewed for Vallejo Times Herald.
As a result of my tabling for LGBTQ Minus Tobacco at the Fiestas Patrias event in Vallejo recently, the organization was asked by James Hogan Middle-High School to table in their quad for National Coming Out Day (October 11). Interestingly I attended James LOGAN High School in Union City.
As a proud Vallejo citizen, I was glad to meet the principal and other staff members who appreciated the information and hand-outs we had for the students who we were glad to see swarm our table when we were there.
We seemed to be well-received, not only by staff, but many of the kids, even if a few of them may have been surprised that we were a queer-focused organization. Staff member Judith Lerner had the kids sign this beautiful banner at the table next to us:
Shando and I joined attended this and had a great time. It was in Dan Foley park’s recreation center. We enjoyed playing blackjack with chips and had a nice buffet with wonderful views.
This was our first time going to any street fair in San Francisco since Covid and we took the opportunity of taking the Vallejo Ferry for the first time, which was quite a cool experience.
While one can easily find all kinds of naughty pictures of the attendees, we will just include a few family-friendly pictures here to prove we were there. <smile>
We did get a chance to run into a lot of close friends who we hadn’t seen in a while.
This is our second September hosting a VGN Potluck, although our plan is to do so in March 2023. It just so happened that month had worked out for us. We’re getting better at hosting and we think that the outdoor encouragement works better for the traffic. It was a great time and we had some dignitaries attend as well.
After almost two years of Covid and moving to Vallejo, we finally made it back to see our friends with the East Bay Bears, who we try to Zoom with every week. It was so great to be back (and not be required to wear a mask). We always get a room to ourselves and it’s rich food and fine people that I missed indulging with.
