Pride & politics thought: we happened to take a short break from the march just as the political parties were passing (got waved at by the former prime minister). The block of the Left Alliance, the smaller and further-left of the two major leftist parties in the country, was about as big as all other parties present combined. Which, as first glance, is great.
Except it also means that, ultimately, equal rights are still in the minority politically. The Left Alliance usually gets around 8% of the popular vote in any national elections (except the recent European parliament elections, where they got an amazing 17,3%). They should not make up 50% of the political blocs at Pride. Our work is only done when they make up 8% of the political blocs at Pride.
This is precisely the kind of depressing shit I want for the day after pride.
Also, speaking of kommunistit (aka The Communist Party of Finland, for those who don't know what we're talking about): the party has never held a single seat in the parliament,1 but their presence at Pride was equal to or larger than those of Keskusta/Centre Party and RKP/Swedish People's Party. (Obviously not counting the parties who wouldn't participate at Pride anyway).
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That is, if you count the current Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue (founded in 1985) as separate from the original party with that name (founded in 1918). The current SKP split from the original and took over the name in 1994, some time after the original SKP had merged with various other leftist parties to form Vasemmistoliitto.