Pride is not just a celebration for you June bugs anymore.  Still to come in 2016 is Pride in Austin, Dallas and Atlanta. (Leave it to the gays to heat things up just as the weather starts to cool down in these hot cities.)

For those of you who need a reliable truck to be as hard working as you butch types are, and want a truck that you can lend to your favorite Gay Pride contingent so they will really get noticed, this year’s Nissan Titan XD could be the Match.com dream date you hoped you would find before your free three-month membership expires.

The all-new 2016 Nissan Titan is a big improvement over the Titan from 2015.  It’s bulkier, it’s bigger and can now tow more than 8,500 pounds, putting it at the high-end of towing capacity in the large truck category. That’s a lot of bears. That’s a lot of queens. That’s a lot of hauling ass – and accessories, equipment (i.e. helium tanks, coffee tanks, bubble machines) and early-morning carbs.

I was the designated driver this summer for the Front Range Bears (none were ever as skinny as Anderson Cooper or Neil Patrick Harris are) and we had quite a presence thanks to Nissan USA, which jumped at the chance to be our Pride parade sponsor (thank you, Steve). These pics by photographer Gary Van Dorn show all the fun we had. What stands out most in all those photos? The 2016 Nissan Titan XD. Making a slow, impressive entrance on a big busy street is tough: let the Titan show you why it’s called the Titan.

This truck stays cool even when it is hot, hot, hot. Picture it: Pride Parade, Denver, 2016. The temperature was fast approaching 100 degrees, we were towing a trailer and the traffic was clearly stop and go. Yet with the Titan XD everyone stopped, looked and applauded, perhaps because there was no steam coming from under the hood, as was the case with other trucks in the parade.  In years past, I have struggled with driving at parade speed while not overheating the engine.  Sure, my towing skills have improved a smidge, but with this year’s Titan, everything stayed cooled even while the bears, butches and other beauties were clearly overheating.

With a truck this big, you need all the help you can get.  One feature I really love (and am surprised more manufacturers don’t install it) is a power steering-column adjuster. Rather than disengage a latch on the column, adjust the steering wheel height and distance and then lock the latch back in place, all you have to do is move the power button up, down, back, forth whatever works for you. This will allow you to save your strength for dealing with all the details you’ll have to address in back of the truck. (Someone is always spilling a double-whip, triple-dip no-fart espresso-yourself of latte-day saints, but with Nissan’s Factory-Applied Spray-On bed-liner (optional), thrills and spills clean up in a jiffy.)

Also with this behemoth (a term of endearment in my gay world), there are automatic seat adjusters, which in this case will allow you to lower your seat as much as needed so your cowboy hat or beehive hair will not hit the ceiling or go crunch as you run over something considerably smaller (hopefully without a vertebrae).

Many reviewers see the new 2016 Titan as a nice midpoint between the basic truck of American life and all the fancy, expensive trucks that now flood the market. It’s luxurious but in a practical way. It’s big and imposing but it can also handle over four tons of payload. That’s my way of saying you really should check out this truck, especially as the model year end draws to a close.

Fellow Gaywheels.com writer Dave Bear beat me to the punch on applause for the new Titan XD: “Redesigned with rugged good looks and the powerful combination of a Cummins Turbo Diesel coupled to an Allison six-speed transmission, it’s a perfect blend of form meeting function.” That’s his way of saying this truck is really, really butch.  Check out his full review here.

I admit, I am still in awe of how LGBTs have come from being openly threatened and arrested for even knowing people with AIDS to a commodity so hot that even PTAs across the country want to get on board.

The progress will only continue–unless Donald Trump gets into the White House.  How to prevent that from happening?  VOTE!  Find out how and where here.