PRIDE

This weekend is the Twin Cities Pride Festival, a wonderful weekend filled with queers and fun and joy. I have never attended such an enthusiastic and welcoming series of events before. Dogs and children (today I also saw a parrot) mingle with the "sinners" and "morally decrepit fiends" scantily clad in leather and latex. In addition to most welcoming, it is also the most skanky and sexy festival. The nudist and bdsm groups are all clustered together in the "R-rated section" of the park, though (no nudity actually happens: the nudists wear barrels and everyone else just looks barely dressed).
Despite the vast amounts of heretofore unseen skin (today there was a pregnant woman with henna covering her stomach, a man in his 50s wearing plaid shorts and gray boxer briefs [yes, I know the color and cut of his underwear. His shorts rode VERY low], a woman in her 60s wearing a strapless sundress that sagged very low, and a multitude of teenagers [male and female and otherwise] wearing things that hormone-ridden teenagers wear to fairs: almost nothing, the TC Pride festival is very family friendly. 73.8% of the people there are entirely unremarkable. I gave rainbow stickers and "I'm a future Ole!" button to dozens of kids today. The family activities are also on the complete opposite side of the park from the R-rated area. I was closer to the r-rated area, so I saw a lot more of people that I think I wanted.
As always, the drag queens were dressed the classiest out of everyone. High heels and glamorous dresses, wonderful makeup and the biggest hair in Minnesota.
Most importantly, for me anyway, everyone who I could possibly want to talk to about GLBT issues is there. From other colleges GLBT organizations and social justice organizations to almost every religion present that I think exists in Minnesota and orgs for community building for the most obscure groups (my favorite of which is Minneapolis Movie Bears, a large contingent of hairy large gay men who watch movies and have dinner together once a week).
I love Pride. It is a gathering of all sorts of people. It is a time when one cannot assume who someone is based on appearance. It is a place of lower pressure to be who one is supposed to be. I can dress however I want, and no one will think less of my for it. I can act however I want, and no one will be suprised. I can be who I am (and who I want to be) without people judging me.
It is a wonderful escape.

I hope to see you all at Loring Park on Sunday. The parade starts at 11am along Hennepin Ave.