Yesterday certainly wasn’t my first time at Pride but this was a bit different than the rest since this year is the first time I really understood why these events are so important.
You think of Pride and of course, you think of ego and arrogance but this ain’t the case. It’s about love. That’s literally all I felt while at the event. That, and a slight bit of relief from a lot of people since it was clear this was the first time in a while they felt truly safe being themselves.
Given the fact that I’m a painfully straight white guy, it’s easy as fuck to take my privilege for granted, I don’t have motherfuckers trying to take away my rights or tell me who I can love or what I can and can’t do with my body. Until I got a taste of the hate from the trolls for supporting the community, I just didn’t get it.
The trolls are fucking sick but I owe em a bit of gratitude since it only increased my resolve to stand with this community. When you’re saying this community is hurting kids yet making fun of the suicide rate, we’ve got a fucking problem. This ain’t what I want to talk about.
It was nothing but Love at Pride.
Okay, I’m sure the Castro was wide open but the Parade itself was pretty mellow and I think I only saw 4 naked guys which is about average for a warm Sunday in San Francisco. There was no talk of opposition or the “enemy”, it was a celebration of love. It wasn’t Kinky at all, it was people who were relieved to finally be in a place where they felt safe enough to be themselves and love who they wanted to love.
The scene was fucking powerful man…
Race, gender, faith, none of this shit mattered. People were putting aside the petty pointless things we use to separate ourselves from each other and coming together to celebrate love in Unison. Old, young, Gay, Straight, people who were figuring themselves out and were finally safe enough to be authentic without the fear of being harassed.
Weirdly it was like going to a concert but instead of seeing a band, everyone in the audience was the headliner and it didn’t matter if you were dressed up or wearing Jeans and a T-shirt, everyone was cool with it. Even when you go to a Sports event, someone is going to lose and a lot of people are going to be disappointed. Not with this, everyone was vibing and it was fucking beautiful.
Normally I hate crowds for various reasons but if you saw the video, I was having a blast walking around. It didn’t hit me until just now but yeah, normally my anxiety kicks in and prevents me from enjoying things like this but you saw the smile, that wasn’t for the camera and it wasn’t the joint I was smoking, I was just feeling groovy.
Nobody was starting shit with anyone else and everyone was smiling and being polite. Again, it wasn’t about Ego and Arrogance, it was about Love.
As much as I wish I could change the minds of the haters, I know I can’t. All I can do is remain vocal and visible so that when these kids get harassed by cowards telling em to do something stupid, they can see that people like me have their back and hopefully this might be able to outweigh the bullshit.
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