My husband and I go out to brunch pretty much every Sunday. Sometimes it's just the two of us, often other friends will join us. This week we're not doing our normal brunch because tomorrow we have our Parade. We always have people over for breakfast and then we head down to the Parade. So we decided we should still do our normal Sunday brunch routine but just move it to Saturday. We did brunch at a restaurant we like in the other gay neighborhood in town (we have two--we live in the other one). We had an earlier engagement that was quicker than anticipated so we arrived almost an hour early. We kind of wandered the neighborhood and watched it wake up, saw the new rainbow and red, white and blue crosswalks they've installed for Pride, saw what businesses have opened, which ones closed. We used to live in that neighborhood and now when we go there it tends to be to meet up with people so we go to a restaurant or a bar and more often than not we go at night, we don't really wander. It was cool to just take it all in and wander about for a while, see how it continues to change and watch all the shiny happy gay people walking their dogs and meeting up for brunch. When it was time for our reservation we wandered over to our chosen restaurant. We got high top tables next to the huge open windows and talked and laughed and watched the world go by for a couple hours--so many LGBT people, mostly either in couples or big laughing groups. At one point my husband leaned in and said "don't you wish the people from that gay board you go on could just sit here for an hour and watch all this go by?" And I really did--I wished people could see how beautiful and normal and simple and hopeful it could all seem. I mean I guess the people wandering by probably had their share of challenges but even those who were just coming back from the grocery store had this bit of bounce to their step on such a sunny Saturday morning, surrounded by all this hope. It was such a lovely little prelude to Pride. So what's the rest of EC doing for the weekend?
That sounds like a wonderful Saturday prelude to Pride! While I am skipping going to any pride parades this year (all of my friends flew up to New York for world Pride this weekend) I decided to take a different approach. I travelled to Charleston, SC this weekend with a date whom I have known for a few years now. While there is no Pride celebration here, it seems as if the spirit of Pride is all around the city. We passed by a church with a pride flag out front, we saw numerous other gay couples visiting the city, we also had a bit of our own PDA from time to time. More so, three weeks ago I was visiting family in a small town about an hour outside Asheville, NC. Unknowingly, the weekend I visited was the town’s first ever Pride day celebration. While no parade, there was a pride picnic, a showing in the town hall of the movie “Pride”, and a concert put on by a regional gay choir in the town center. It was a small event, but I was impressed to see the initiative made by the town. Even in a southern city like Charleston or a small mountain town in NC, we see progress all around. The spirit of Pride seems to be everywhere!
No pride events for us, but the bf and I spent a refreshing weekend together hiking & camping in a remote area with few others around. Waking up Saturday morning to the sounds of nature (and his and his dog’s gentle snores lol) and the togetherness of just us as we grow this relationship, has me beaming with an internal pride that’s slowly but surely replacing the shame of my unacknowledged sexuality for so, so long.
Traveled to NYC to take part it the 50th activities. It was such an emotional high for me to be there among so many LGBTQ+ people celebrating who we are with pride. Being there with my BF holding hands and proudly identifying as gay men was so exciting along with a real sense of community with everyone. I have never felt prouder to have come out and identify as gay as I did this weekend. For me being gay is everything I had always dreamed about. Out and proud! ️
I love it all. This is just like where I live and it’s why we live here. My husband and I specifically chose this community because we want our daughter to grow up in a community where being whatever you feel is just a normal and happy part of every day of life, so that if she ever even so much as questions her speciality, it is done with joy and confidence and not terror and secrecy like what I went through in my teens. I mean, adolescence is hard as it is. Why make it harder, right?
