🏳️‍🌈 GAY PRIDE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT, RIGHT? 🌈

Parents walking with kids, leather men sporting dog masks, Muslim women in hijabs carrying rainbow placards & LGBTI refugees smiling & waving @ the crowd… the list goes on & on.

Pride parades display great diversity,  it has a family area, a post-parade area for seniors, sports groups, military personnel, gym queens, dykes on bikes, DJs, drag performers & non-binary activists, among many, many others.

In fact, looking around, you can’t help but sometimes wonder what on earth all these people have in common & I think that can put some us in a place where we feel we don’t belong.

I get the idea that a bunch of nude or severely intoxicated men can be a turn off, but pride isn’t about just them. I know many don’t see much pride in public indecency, but that’s just one aspect of what is out there. I don’t think that the gay part of gay pride has been marginalized or pushed aside.

The LGBTI community is diverse & any Pride parade has to reflect that diversity. If you it’s too much about the muscle men, the best way to remedy that is to ensure you are there.

No, you won’t be surrounded by thousands of people exactly like you because the LGBTI family is an incredibly diverse one. But nobody represents you better than you do.

Pride is what you make of it & it’s not something you should feel obliged to attend. But if you stay away because you don’t see enough people like yourself there, you’re only contributing to the problem, right?