Gratifyingly, the Seattle Pride Parade seems to be established downtown where it belongs, after years of internecine bickering over whether it should get out of the Capitol Hill ghetto. Now all we have to do is make it interesting. The mainstreaming of gay culture means the inevitable dulling of whatever edge Pride weekends had; what once was a defiantly raised fist is now lawn chairs in the shade. Even this year’s political battle, with same-sex marriage rights on the November ballot, is a struggle toward coziness: Rah, rah, domesticity! Not that I want the clock turned back—Gee, if only we were more oppressed, Pride would be more charged with meaning. That the whole thing’s grown stodgy is something to celebrate, I guess; we’re slowly winning the fight not to be unusual. Now the parade is no more subversive than Veterans Day in Cedar Rapids, and the festival is basically the Bite of Seattle with less food and better abs. (Parade: 11 a.m. from Fourth Ave. & Union St. to Denny Way, ending at Seattle Center, where festivities follow from noon-8 p.m.) GAVIN BORCHERT

Sun., June 24, 11 a.m., 2012