Progress march on.
- SF Pride 2014
Almost three weeks ago, I traveled to San Francisco with a few of my cousins and my good friend, Jason, for a very special reason. We BART-ed (I like to verbify nouns) to the city to march in the 2014 Pride Parade with the Human Rights Campaign.
Flashback to another three weeks before then: Around the first week of June, I became aware SF Pride was quickly approaching. Because I had such an amazing and fun experience marching in last year's parade for the first time with Equality California, I knew I had to do it again. Being a part of the parade was such a blast. We danced to the music playing on the loudspeakers ("Same Love" was the song that started the parade, are we surprised?), we chanted for trans rights, and yelled for equal rights. Because my friends - Jason, Hannah, Lexi, Anthony, and Karissa - and I were so energetic and loud, the leader of EQCA encouraged us to run around and high five the millions of people cheering in the stands. We did and everyone loved it.
But it was more than just another literally colorful rally with lots of dancing and cheering. I found myself mentally pausing throughout the day, absorbing everything happening around me and what it all meant. And I'm glad I did because I think my hyperactive awareness of my surroundings made it all the more sentimental.
- SF Pride 2013
You see, SF Pride 2013 followed two very important Supreme Court decisions for the LGBTQQAP (and whoever else I'm missing) community. The Defense of Marriage Act, DOMA, and California's law banning same-sex marriage, Prop 8, were ruled unconstitutional earlier that week. Love and 100% genuine happiness surrounded me. Now I'm sure these emotions can be felt at every pride event, but for some reason this particular event truly felt like a celebration times three. I still remember people carrying signs that said "Thank you, Supreme Court."
These brief moments of contemplation throughout the day made me realize just how important it all was - not just this one single event, but this movement, this gathering, this needed celebration, this call for love over judgement, hate, and discrimination. I'm trying not to get too into it, but wow. It was beautiful.
Now back to the semi-present.
In early June, I checked my e-mails from HRC and sure enough, there was a link to sign up as a pride volunteer. I decided to invite my cousins along since we do everything together and I wanted to share this with them. My outfit last year for pride was very last minute - bright turquoise shorts, white Toms, and a white shirt with "Love is love" messily painted on with hot pink paint.
Needless to say, I didn't want that again. My cousins and I made "Pride Princess" outfits - aka a tulle tutu and flower crown - in colors that matched a Disney princess of our choosing. I obviously chose my princess alter ego, Rapunzel. And yes, I brought the Pascal stuffed toy I received for my 18th birthday.
One of my favorite parts about taking the train into the city during pride weekend is seeing the cars fill up with all kinds of people, dressed in all kinds of outfits, headed to San Francisco for the same reason. Lucky for us, we were able to sit down because we boarded on the first stop.
Tangent: on the ride to SF, I saw that @JamieFord had favorited my tweet about some books. It was a picture of a few of my favorites I had lent to my cousins and I included that I absolutely love Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which is an incredible book y'all need to read. It's definitely one of my favorites. I knew the name sounded so familiar but I couldn't exactly pinpoint who it was. I clicked the Twitter handle to check out the user's profile, and what do you know! The New York Times Best-Selling Author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet had favorited my tweet! Plus 1,000 excitement points for this day.
Anyway, back to the main story.
Once we arrived in San Francisco, we made it through the crowded subway escalators and several streets blocked off streets before finding the HRC leaders. But before we made it to them, we were stopped a handful of times by various people with cameras. Should I call them photographers? I'm not sure. But nevertheless, we were complimented on the "cuteness" of our themed outfits and posed for several pictures.
When we finally reached our group, we decorated ourselves with HRC stickers and I stuck a few in my bag for my laptop, my car, and whatever else I might feel like putting a sticker on. More people took pictures of us and we were asked if we wanted to hold the HRC's main sign and lead the group since we were all "so cute and matchy matchy." We said yes, of course, and while we waited for our turn to start walking in the parade, we danced to the loud music, earning a lot of smiles and comments.
Then began the two hour parade - chanting "What do we want?!" "Equality!" "When do we want it?!" "Now!" Waving at, cheering with, and sometimes blowing kisses to the people in the audience. God, I love the really energetic people in the crowds. I also snapped a few pictures whenever I saw a sign I particularly liked or saw someone interesting.
It was a beautiful and fun day. If I can be home for pride weekend next year, I'll definitely be here again. Until then, I really want to make it to other events too.
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