October Pride Parade in Orlando 2025!

Steve (DOS) and I were proud to march in the Orlando Pride Parade, as a small group organized by our College Park United Methodist Church this past weekend. While we didn’t have the big floats or local mega- corporate sponsors, we enjoyed being a small part of the Pride Parade 2025. Steve DOS and I both are definitely not activists, and consider ourselves a normal couple that just happens to be gay. Our Church, however, is so very loving and inclusive, we really felt compelled to march with the Church as they have been walking in this parade in downtown Orlando over the past few years. We wanted to join the parade last year, however, with my knee pain, and ultimate knee replacement surgery earlier this year in April, I was not able to walk that far, so we have previously declined until this year. This post is a bit different than our normal travel posts, but wanted to show that our Church truly preaches that God loves EVERYONE, which he does indeed!

I’m happy to report I was able to walk the whole route, and along with Steve (DOS), we made a stay-cation of the weekend, staying in Downtown Orlando for two nights at the Embassy Suites. We stayed at this hotel which was near the finish line of the walk, yet the start of the walk was about 6/10th of a mile away where we had to meet at 3:30pm for the pre-staging setup. We were concerned about the traffic downtown as Orlando was expecting over 200,000 people (from last year’s count) and many of the roads were closed around and near the parade route, so it was a good excuse for another stay-cation!

The Embassy Suites is located near the Thorton Park neighborhood, a small upscale gay-friendly section of town that has several nice restaurants and bars. The first night we went to the complimentary manager’s reception at the hotel, which provided two alcoholic drinks a person from 5:30pm – 7:30pm. I’m old enough to remember when the Embassy Suites chain used to provide unlimited drinks during this time by just showing your key card, but I guess cutbacks are inevitable everywhere. LOL!

Later we went to Rusteak a few blocks away in Thornton Park, and had a wonderful dinner.

The next day we had the complimentary breakfast at the Embassy Suites, and relaxed a bit before our meeting time of 3:30pm. Steve (DOS) toured the Pride setup and vendor tent a bit, which was filled with lots of vendors handing out freebies and flyers, located around the Lake Eola Park area, while I relaxed in the hotel saving my energy for the parade later in the day.

We headed out from the hotel around 2:45pm for the walk up to our meeting point located along Orange Avenue, downtown. Along the walk there, we passed many happy people dressed up, setting up vendor booths, putting final touches on floats, and generally getting ready for the parade.

DOS and I wore our “LOVE BIG” T-shirts, supplied by our church group, which the others marching with us wore as well. “Love Big” is a motto our Church uses regularly, and genuinely means and acknowledges it. It’s really special having our church and several other (all Methodist Churches) marching in the event, as they truly recognize we are all God’s children, and should love each other as such. Unfortunately too many people have shut themselves away from God due to the damnation of many well-intentioned but misunderstood church interpretations of the Bible. I’m a Baptist minister’s son, so I feel free to say this without prejudice, growing up in an ultra-conservative, but very loving home. My parents have passed, and while we never really acknowledged Steve DOS and our relationship to them, they knew (as parents know their own children well) and really embraced us both. My Mom, even gave Steve the nickname “DOS” for second Steve in Spanish!

As Steve (DOS) and I checked in with the others in our group, we noticed that there were many families with young children marching with us, and strangely, we were the “odd couple” marching, (i.e. the gay couple marching among the straight families!) although some of the other gay people from church were marching with other groups or their employers also sponsoring the march. We had brought beads and candy to hand out, and the church also supplied candy and “God is a big fan of You!” fans, which were freely distributed along our walk. Our church administrator had conveniently sorted all of the handouts in bags, and everyone took what they could carry or put in their back packs, with the remainder of the items to give out stored in a wagon someone pulled along the parade route.

The mood prior to the parade was really one of love and fellowship, and even other secular groups came up to us, acknowledged our church and posed for photos and chat. It truly felt like it was one common world with all of the different groups of people coming together if only for the day. It was really refreshing to see so many people supportive and loving with no judgement or stigma attached.

We were signaled to start the parade by a trio of parade administrators on golf carts buzzing by and indicating which group was next, as the groups came from 2 cross-streets in front of us, as well as the right side of our street (Orange Ave) gradually merging into one parade route.

Once we started walking with the parade (we were located near the very back as we weren’t a high end sponsor or fancy float), I couldn’t really take photos as we were holding “LOVE BIG” signs, passing out fans or candy, and generally waving at the parade watchers. Once we made the turn off of Orange Avenue from the back-stage staging area – Wow – did it get busy with the thousands of people who turned out for the parade! We walked the whole route to the cheers of the thousands of people watching and cheering! I don’t know how big the turnout was this year, but last year in 2024, there were over 200,000 people attending in Orlando! Orlando has the Pride parade in October, as it’s too hot to have in June during the traditional Pride month.

We had a fun bonus we weren’t expecting; the float shown below taken well before the parade started was directly in front of us, and it had probably a dozen guys blowing bubbles along the route which coincidentally blew on our group as well as the parade watchers! The theme was they were in a giant jacuzzi tub with the huge bubbles spilling out. They were advertising “Sawmill”, a gay campground area not far from Orlando. No we haven’t been, but did look it up out of curiosity!😀

As the parade started, we were concerned we would slip on the street pavement with all the bubbles as they were HUGE soap-like bubbles similar to Disney’s smaller version simulating snow flakes, and continuously blowing with the wind, usually right at us! Below is a short video of our group getting ready to start the parade walk, with the Sawgrass bubble float in the distance in front of us. We caught up closer to it pretty soon, and enjoyed the bubble parade close up!

The kids in our group as well as the parade watchers loved it, (as did the TV camera when we watched on YouTube later), and kids were scooping up bubbles by the handful! It was definitely quite entertaining for everyone! And no, we (or others marching) did not slip and fall along the parade route!

I must admit, I was a bit tired by the end of the parade; actually about 3/4 of the way through. I’m still getting my cardio strength back from my heart operations a while back, and coupled with not walking much distance over the last year or two due to my knee issues as well, I got a bit winded from the continuous parade route. I’m gradually building my strength back up since I had my knee replacement surgery, and longer cardio sessions will come with time. But I happily made it thru the parade, with a prayer along the way for strength.

It sounds bad, but as soon as we hit the finish line, I headed straight to the Outpost Bar, if for no other reason than to sit down! I found a table out back at this overflowing bar, and had a brewski to cool off! By this time it was 6pm, and I had been on my feet the whole time since 2:45pm, but it was a good feel, even if I was sore; as well as sense of accomplishment with my “new knee”!

After the brewski, Steve (DOS) and I walked back to our hotel, showered, and napped a bit. We later went out to dinner, again in Thornton Park, and this time at The Stubborn Mule, a sister restaurant to Rusteak, and directly across the street from where we went the night before. Compared to the crowds of the parade, this was really a relaxing evening of dining, and although busy, it was relatively quiet, with many diners sitting outside the restaurant including a large group just outside our window.

We had a wonderful dinner at The Stubborn Mule, and like her sister restaurant Rusteak, the food quality and service were excellent. We even had a shared delicious dessert, and the best part was viewing the Pride Fireworks from our table via the window, and visible even from a few blocks away! Definitely a nice weekend ending to the Pride Parade and our mini-downtown stay-cation.