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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I had forgotten, because it has hitherto been interesting but unimportant to me that it was London Pride Day. I was, with my wife and son and her friend viewing the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, and I'd seen that there was "an event" in the West End, which would close some roads.
All unaware we had lunch in Chinatown and then headed for the National Gallery. Hard not to notice the large peaceful gathering in Trafalgar Square and the PRIDE stage.
After we left the gallery we walked around the square. Loved the Gay and Lesbian Underwater Group - GLUG - for scuba friends. Nothing self effacing there! Caught Mayor BoJo's address on the big screen. Shame he was jeered at the start because he is emphatically in favour of Pride. And then we left towards the Institute of Directors.
The parade had started.
I like any carnival parade. I always have. What I was wholly unprepared for was the huge personal effect this one had on me. No, tears were not streaming down my face, but I was fighting to hold them back.
So many people. So many people who have, some of them, fought for recognition and acceptance. So many people who are happy to be able to be accepted, whether they have needed to fight or not. So many gay people, out, probably proud, some not sure, but together, in a party with friends and strangers, simply celebrating the fact that we exist.
I'm not expressing this well. It overwhelmed me.
Our small party, spectators by coincidence, were each appalled at the boos from the alleged christians near the IOD. I accept their right to freedom of expression. A shame that I have no right to the same freedom by smacking them hard in the mouth. I understand why I may not, and why I should not, but I want to.
My wife didn't know how emotional I had been until I talked to her when we got home. I couldn't express it to her any more than I can to you. I wasn't marching, I was just a suddenly involved spectator. But I was so proud of everyone who WAS marching. My heart was there wherever else my body was. I know I could have stepped into the march, but that would have been a selfish act on an otherwise planned trip to London.
So I should march next year.
But I will have moved many miles away. If I do it will take planning.
I was wondering, idly, as the parade went past how many were site readers. We have over 1,600 per day, and a huge proportion is UK based. But above all I was almost crying hot tears because, even though I was not part of it, I could have been.
When I was a kid I could not have been.
That is the point. Today's young gay people in the UK, those who dare to, those who choose to, are able to be who they are openly. Some of my era managed too, like NW, but very few of us.
So many gay people, so many totally normal people who are simply gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and trans. So many. And so many multi cultural, multi age group gay, straight, kids, parents, grandparents, who applauded the parade and looked genuinely happy to see it.
[Updated on: Sun, 05 July 2009 07:03]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Well said, Timmy, I really think if I'd been there I might have been affected the same way. But I've never been.
Love,
Anthony
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timmy
I'm absolutely delighted to hear that your first encounter with London Pride was such a positive experience!
I wasn't working on it this year ( a reunion of 20 or so of schoolmates from my year took priority). But I do work on it more often than not, and reactions like yours are very much one of the reasons that I volunteer to do so: Pride is a unique and affirmatory experience, however one chooses to participate (and yes, those watching the March are of course participating in a very real sense).
It would be good if you're able to come along next year.
cheers
NW
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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Im glad you got to experience a Gay Pride Festival. I attended my first one when i was 17. The sense of pride/happiness was overwhelming for me, too. A year later, i got to march in one. I highly recommend you give yourself the opportunity to participate in one. For the first time, people will be applauding YOU! Just for being who you are, a human being.
You don't love someone because they are beautiful, they are beautiful because you love them.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I hadn't expected the reaction at all. Perhaps it was intensified by the fact that I hadn't expected the event at all. It wasn't anywhere near my radar, you see.
If I had any expectation it was of amusement at costumes, horror at some of the costumes, perhaps even mild embarrassment rooted in my many closeted years.
I never expected to cry.
All of these people, to greater of lesser degrees, were examples of me. Some ostentatious, others self effacing, some I am sure were embarrassed, others "nervous that work would see but there anyway".
I would definitely like to crucify the alleged christians with their "be sure that your sin will find you out" placards. Perhaps we could use the placards and nail them to them on the basis that "it is what they would have wanted", but they don't enjoy their bleak little lives anyway, so maybe living death is punishment enough.
Yes, the spectators are a part of it. What would a parade be without people who watch it?
I think I was also happily and heartily surprised by my little group's reactions. They never expressed them, openly, not really, but they were very happy to see the march. Of course they would never have murmured disgust in my presence, but their faces showed approval.
[Updated on: Sun, 05 July 2009 07:29]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I've also written this up on my blog at http://bit.ly/n3JTi
A similar write-up, yes, but there are other aspects in there too. The main one is that I am, while keeping the site here and my real identity separate, starting to be really and truly out.
I'm not yet free from fear, but I'm trying.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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ray2x
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: April 2009
Messages: 430
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I have been to a few Pride gatherings, even one in West Hollywood in 1982. It was a joyous occasion, but I haven't been to one lately. I get good positive feelings when I hear of a Pride event. It just became aware to me this year that the town I live in, Santa Clarita, CA, has no awareness of any gay anything on its agenda. I do monitor their website and they seem to celebrate all that is conservative. I wonder if this is a good fight to get them to acknowledge there is a sizable amount of gay/lesbian/trans folks living with the straight and narrow folks (some who happen to be good friends of mine).
Raymundo
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My first Pride was Long Beach Pride, then i attended West Hollywood Pride.
You don't love someone because they are beautiful, they are beautiful because you love them.
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I have attended as a marcher all the London pride events from 1995 till 2001 and from then have attended the Brighton Pride event which again this year i shall be at.
paul J.
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