A bastion of tolerance in the Midwest, Iowa City hosted its annual Pride parade and festival on Saturday. The procession began at College Green Park at noon and saw hundreds of participants spreading the rainbow along downtown’s Pedestrian Mall.
It was quite like most other parades—families, civic groups, floats, balloons (okay, rainbow balloons, but still). “These days, we’re very blessed in Iowa to have achieved pretty much 99 percent equality,” Bridget Malone, co-chair of the Iowa City Pride Committee,
tells The Daily Iowan. “We are celebrating the LGBT pride in our community, pride in Iowa City, and pride for all of the positive changes that are happening in America.”
One of those changes is the inclusion of the first official color guard in the parade’s 40-year history: Three out service members led the procession carrying the American, Iowa state and Pride flags.
Said Malone, “It’s a big step up and a very symbolic thing for us.”
Click through for more images from Iowa City Pride 2012
Photos: Alan Light 
Some Random Guy
Iowa City is a fun, interesting town. I was pleasantly surprised.
Ross
Awww I <3 Iowa City! I wish I could live there 🙁
Ross
@Ross: Instead I am stuck in San Diego ;(
Clay
Where are the I.C. Kings pictures?!
Audra
I second what Clay said. I took a bunch of pictures of the I.C. Kings and I would be willing to share!
Ryan
Wow, that was a whole bunch of skinny white people.
Billysees
Great pics.
Great faces.
Great smiles.
Great people.
Andy
I enjoyed these photos, and found the rest of them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-light/sets/72157630151705442/
Billysees
@Andy: No 8
I enjoyed the rest of the pics also.
Andy
@Ryan: Iowa is like 97% white. Skinny? Not so much, but those are the photos Queerty selected. The rest of the bunch (see link at #8) is more diverse in that regard. There’s even an Iowa City drag king in there.