PORTLAND, Ore. -- Pride 2009 brought thousands to downtown Portland as they enjoyed a colorful, uniquely Portland, display of freedom and equal rights.

It’s one of the oldest gay pride parades in the country going back to the 1970s. Sam Adams has participated in this parade many times in the past, but never as Mayor.

“Wow, it’s a real honor to serve as Mayor and the fact that Portlanders put me in here as the first openly gay Mayor of a Major U.S. city, I’m a lucky guy,” said Mayor Adams as he rode his bicycle down the parade route.

Many in the gay community are eager for results of an Attorney General’s investigation into Adams alleged sexual relationship with an underage intern, but the crowd along the parade route gave the Mayor strong support.

Dave Crawford said, “I’m for Sam Adams. I think he needs to ride it out and see how it goes with the Attorney General’s report. Hopefully it will turn out that he didn’t do anything wrong and we should get on with a Mayor doing good things for us in Portland.”

Hanah Linder said, “I think Portlanders love Sam!” While Jai Eller said, “I think it’s probably about 50/50 when it comes to Mayor Adams.”

But there’s an even bigger issue that the gay community is not divided over.

“Legalizing marriage for gay people -- That’s it, plain and simple,” said Laura Mosier who wants to get married to her long time partner Hanah Linder.

Dave Crawford and Scott Mason are fighting for the same right and were even married in Multnomah County until it was annulled by lawmakers. “We’ve been together for 30 years and still we can’t get married, Oregon must change that!” said Crawford.

The gay community’s battle for civil rights is ongoing and the pride parade is an event where important issues are discussed, but mostly it’s a chance to have fun.

That’s exactly what happened on an overcast Sunday that suddenly turned extremely bright and colorful, at least in Downtown Portland.