Pride 2024

I attended the local Pride celebration on Saturday, 1-June-2024. It was my first Pride since 2012, back in Houston. Lots of things conspired in the interim to keep me away, none of which are really relevant now.

The Pride celebration here was in a big city park. It was preceded by the usual parade, which ended in said park. No, I still won’t say publicly where I am. I went with a couple of friends, who were tolerant and concerned about my health issues. There was lots of shade in the park, and plenty of room to sit and relax. I had a camp chair, which one of my friends was kind enough to carry for me.

We started the day by picking a spot to sit and wait for the start of the parade. We settled on a spot under a big tree at the last corner of the parade before it turned into the park. While we waited, a few people also settled in that same area, including a mom and her roughly 4 year old daughter, who I’ll call Jennie and Lisa (not their real names). Jennie and Lisa both were very friendly and accepting of the 3 older trans women. Lisa decided she wanted out of her stroller, and promptly walked the short distance over to us, and struck up a conversation.

Apparently, Lisa approaches and engages with anyone who looks like they might be grandparents. She commented how much she liked my one friend’s brightly colored nails. Then she moved on to commenting on my ring I was wearing. Jennie was cool the whole time, and engaged us in conversation as well. It was a good way to start a day of visibility and joy.

The parade took maybe 45 minutes to reach where we were, and another 45 or so to move entirely past us. I was in the camp chair the whole time, except for a brief period to get a photo taken. (Photo below) I was decked out all in pink and blue for trans colors. Even my hair was mostly cotton candy pink.

I watched the parade go by, and at some point Jennie and Lisa moved on. When the parade had gone by entirely, we three headed into the park to visit the vendors, and listen to the music on the two large stages. We wandered around for probably 5 or so hours, while taking frequent breaks to rest and hydrate. This next photo is a selfie I took during one of our breaks. You can see a bit of the crowd in the background.

As we walked around, I was stopped several times by younger female participants to compliment me on my hair color. That was a really affirming experience for this much older trans lesbian. They were all probably in their 20s, and they liked my appearance enough to comment! Oh, and Jennie and Lisa came by, and called out greetings to us as well.

I also had an opportunity to play grandma to a young girl (early teens?) and her mom. The girl had just been stung by a bee, and mom was freaking out a bit because she knew her own mother was very allergic to bee stings. I calmed them both, and gently and carefully removed the stinger from the girl’s finger. It was clear to me that the risk of allergic reaction was very low. By this time, another young woman, who clearly knew the event layout, came over and offered to help them find First Aid, and they moved on to do that.

There was one booth that (two of us) were trying to find that we just couldn’t locate. The LGBT-friendly counseling group we use was there, but for the life of us we couldn’t find it. Ah well. There were easily thousands of people there, and probably a hundred booths spread throughout the park. So it’s no big surprise we couldn’t find that one booth.

It was a very expensive day, which shouldn’t have surprised me I suppose, but it did. Food and drink were quite costly, as were other related costs. The parking garage we used charged a flat rate of $45 for “event parking”. The park was in the center of a major downtown area, so street parking wasn’t really an option. They knew they had a captive audience, so they charged accordingly. Ah, capitalism.

About 6pm, we were all getting fairly tired, and agreed it was time to call it a day. And it was a day. A day of fun and friendship, congeniality and acceptance. I hated to leave, but I had to admit, that even with frequent breaks, I was out of spoons. So we headed to the car, paid the exorbitant parking charge, and headed home.

It was a fun time, and well worth the investment of spoons. Yes, I paid for it on Sunday. My fibro flared by the time we got home Saturday night, and that continued through the rest of the weekend. I’m still glad I did it.

Tags: fibro, fibromyalgia, LGBT, LGBT community, Pride 2024, trans, Trans Joy, Transgender