I moved to Seattle in 1976 and marched in the parade. The next year I watched but didn't march. I never went again. Why?

Because in '76 I had signed up for snail-mail notifications. And for years I received letter encouraging me to march in the most offensive clothes I could manage. Nudity encouraged. After all, the cops can't arrest everyone titter titter titter.

These people weren't interested in political progress. They just wanted the catharsis of offending the "str8s."

There was no dirtier word than "assimilation"