by Paige Pila Boho Langit, Empress XXXVIII, Imperial Court of All Alaska | photos by Mel Green

The Imperial Court of All Alaska (ICOAA) float won the Judges Choice Award at the Anchorage 4th of July festival and parade. Paige, Empress 38 of Alaska, graciously accepted Bent Alaska’s invitation to post her account of the day’s festivities; photos and additional comments by Bent Alaska contributor Mel Green.

This account has been slightly abridged to exclude a conversation resulting from an insensitive comment made by another parade participant; see Paige’s blog post for the full account.

What a great weekend we had here in Anchorage! These past few weeks have just been so crazy and jam packed full of things to do, that when Monday morning came around, I had wondered where the time went.

It was amazing to see the support from the GLBT community that came out for the Independence Day Parade. Our morning started out with a few follies… from driving the float from the house, and having to stop twice because of the styrofoam sidings, to the comedy of finding where our float was supposed to be… H or I? H or I? Is that the latest map? Which way are we facing? Are they in our spot?…

We started the procession at 11am, with music blasting from Glee, Gaga, Sister Sledge, Pink, and every other anthem more than likely found at the Friday Night Diva Show. It was awesome…!

As we passed crowds of people all along the parkstrip, most were moving to the music, most waved… some shook their heads in what appeared to be disgust… The nay-sayers. -eh- They were HEAVILY outweighed by supporters. There were celebrities in the crowd, there were community members we gave shout-outs to in the crowd.

All in all, it was a great day for the GLBT community. After the parade, we decided to hit the parkstrip in full force… to show our unity, and our pride.

Towards the end of the day, Parade Awards were presented and we won Judges Choice 2011! I was so proud of our group, and what we accomplished. We accepted the trophy as a large group, too! I couldn’t help but feel so proud to be a part of something like that. On a day that we honor, and recognize what this country was founded upon, its so terribly important to remember things like, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”… and “One Nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all”.

Like one of the shirts said in our group… “All means ALL.”

Added comments from Mel:

It was a lot of fun taking photos as community members including friends and allies readied ICOAA’s float for the parade. A couple of my favorite shots —

Partying down on the ICOAA float…

… & a naughty peek up Daphne DoAll LaChores skirt!

(Daphne didn’t seem to mind.)

Besides the photos I took as we waited for the parade to begin, I also took photos from three different vantages as a spectator. After the last (along 10th & I or so), I fell in behind the float — & that was just terrific, as like Paige I noticed how most of the spectators cheered the float along, with only a few stoney-faced “I refuse to react positively at a gay float” reactions. Seeing the mostly smiling faces and clapping hands reminded me of how ICOAA has acted as a great ambassador for our community with its July 4 floats over the years — and particularly this year, as we deal with the loss we experienced just over a week ago at the Pride parade.

I was very proud to be walk with ICOAA’s float this year. Thank you, ICOAA, for all that you do for our community.

Here’s my complete slide show of photos; you can also see them at my Flickr photostream.