We bopped around together for the entire day. I also met this woman, (whom I only knew as Ari) during a block party. This was my first ever Pride (I’m on the right), so it was meaningful for that reason. We had lovely pals to walk with including my beautiful friend who was extremely pregnant! I had other queers ask me about the bi colours - and black-clad teenagers thank me for wearing them and being visible.
Robin Tatlow-Lord / Adelaide, South Australia / 2018Ģ018 was my first real Pride and for me it was all about bi visibility and flamboyance! I might have gone a bit extra extra to compensate for my gorgeous partner / portable closet.
But when the preceding 15 months included the attacks in Brussels, Orlando, Nice, and Manchester, WorldPride Madrid felt like the protest it should have been: fuck the fear, we will be here and loud and proud and visible together. I feel like this could have made the whole thing too corporate, too male (as Prides notably often are), or too much of a street party for straight people (which Madrid Pride often is).
WorldPride is like the Olympics of Pride events with entire countries passing by waving their own rainbow flags. I’d never been to a large pride event before (just some local parades and bars) so this was kind of baptism by fire. Madrid Pride is already typically the largest pride event in Europe with roughly two million participants each year, but in 2017 Madrid also hosted WorldPride - making it the largest pride event in the world. Unfortunately, the power nap I was about to take lasted about five hours too long and I wound up missing the Chicagostraddlers’ beach meet-up, but it was definitely an amazing weekend anyway! I’d just moved to the city ten days ago after feeling lonely and isolated in the suburbs for over a decade, and couldn’t wait to feel like a part of the queer community. This post-Pride-Parade mirror selfie makes me smile, and not just because I’m wearing a friggin rainbow cape and giant feminist/queer buttons. Rachael / Inside My Apartment, Chicago, IL / 2018 This picture is important because it shows a queer black woman from the south being loved on by her family.Ĭhelsea Amato + Mister Softee Truck / New York, NY / 2018 We danced in the streets for hours and racked up on tons of candy, beads, and coupons to local businesses. This year, they made it a priority to meet up and celebrate with me. I tried to get my parents to come to Atlanta’s Pride Parade with me for years, but our schedules never lined up.
Good luck making it through without crying!įeel free to share your own photos in the comments. It’s Pride month have you heard? Have you danced in the streets, wearing a rainbow flag, surrounded by topless women, shouting your queerness and here-ness, maybe honking a horn or ringing a bell? Here’s hoping! Below you’ll find 50 LGBTQ+ humans who sent in photos of themselves at past Prides and shared a story about why these specifics pictures are special to them.
Welcome to Queer IRL, an occasional Autostraddle community photo series that gathers little clips of lesbian, bisexual, queer and otherwise-identified women, trans and non-binary folks, just living our lives in 2019. This post is sponsored by HBO and Gentleman Jack.