On my annual exploration of the venerable New York City Easter Parade, I overhead a man, a tourist, whisper to his wife, "I thought this was an Easter Parade; this is more like a cross between Pride and Mardi Gras." You bet your out-of-town Easter Eggs it is.

The Fifth Avenue Easter Parade is one of New York's oldest and best-known annual traditions. It is also the "other" gay parade. In fact, some might argue that it's even gayer than Pride and Halloween. Pride tries too hard and is so theatrically forced gay. And Halloween can be downright silly, sexy, but silly.

But the Easter Parade has sort of accidentally become gay. How gay is it? Well, consider that in Chicago parents take their children to see Santa Claus, in Washington D.C. parents take their kids to see the Easter Bunny, but in Manhattan parents take their kids to see the Easter Drag Queen. That's how gay it is.



Irving Berlin memorialized the event in the 1948 musical with Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Peter Lawford and Ann Miller, but the New York Easter Parade tradition goes back to a much earlier time.

The Easter Parade is a New York tradition that dates back to the middle of the 1800s. The social elite would attend services at one of the 5th Avenue churches (Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Catholic) and then parade their new fashions down the Avenue afterwards.

The less well to do would come to see what the latest trends were. Many handy seamstresses found inspiration for their client's wardrobes at the parade. It was a combination of religious services and haute couture in the days before TV, when only the wealthiest New Yorkers could attend the hottest Paris fashion shows. One could even say that the Fifth Avenue Easter Parade was New York's first official catwalk. And maybe that was the "problem." Catwalk? Do I smell a catwalk? Send in the gays! Do I exaggerate? You be the judge.