Big Sis may have been to the Wizard of Oz Museum in Kansas, but has she stood in front of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton with fifty people on top of a bus shelter, watching a dozen dancing Dorothies?


No, she hasn't. Or if she has, she hasn't blogged about it.

But hang on, who's that little green munchkin following the yellow brick road with his back to the camera and a jacket over his shoulder on the hottest day of the year..? Why, it's none other than Lib Dem President Simon Hughes, formerly the "straight choice" for the Bermondsey by-election of 1983, now outed by The Sun and more than happy to join a gay pride march. Hurrah!

I met Simon fifteen years ago at the Greenbelt Christian Arts Festival. How we've both changed.

Anyhoo, yesterday was indeed Brighton Pride 2007, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put on a pink cowboy hat and stop homophobia in Poland. Or something. Frankly I'd be willing to fly to Krakow and personally put homophobes to the sword if only my neighbours at Flat 1 would come with me. And then stay there. I love Poles as much as the next man, but the party they held outside my living room window on Friday night was still going strong at 10am the next morning, only to begin again in earnest last night. And when they start breaking glasses and singing songs of their homeland, you do start to lose patience. But I digress...

Here's Dr David Bull, former presenter of Watchdog Healthcheck, Tomorrow's World and... um... Most Haunted Live, recreating John Travolta's role in Saturday Night Fever, and publicising the fact that the Brighton Conservative Party have learnt nothing from their experience with David Van Day, and are still placing all their faith in celebrities. Dr Bull has just been selected as the Tory party candidate for the next election. I can't wait.

As well as the gay police, gay paramedics and gay firefighters (who are like the PC brigade, only more liberal), groups taking part in the parade this year included a bus-load of gay people with mental health problems, represented by the charity Mind under the slogan 'Mind Out'. I quite liked that.

But not as much as I liked the slogan 'Buggery not Barclays'. I presume that's the gang from Lloyds TSB on their annual staff outing. Mind you, if you think their banner's offensive, you should have seen the one just behind. I could be arrested if I hadn't cropped it out of the photo.

Following the bonkers bankers were a group from 'Brighton Bothways', whose banner declaring "biSEXualS!" prompted the middle-aged lady in front of us to ask her husband "What's a bisexual?". I didn't hear his reply. But in case she's reading this, it's someone who's not too picky.

I'll leave you with some of the more god-fearing members of the parade. On the left are the Lesbian & Gay Christian movement, who have made it easy for any far-right extremists with sniper rifles by dotting the 'i' in 'Christians' with a gun-sight, while on the right we see...



... the Salvation Army???