As I was driving (my cage) to work on Friday morning, I was listening to the news. There was a report about events in DC this weekend. One of the events listed was Capital Pride — the annual concentrated series of events and activities for gay, lesbian, and assorted and sundry related folk held in Washington, DC. Events around this year’s Capital Pride have winnowed to three days — Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with the largest event on Sunday — the “Pride Festival.”
Obviously, since I forgot about it, you may wonder what my spouse and I think.
First off, we think the event is fine for those who like large gatherings and certain kinds of music, arts, crafts, and “rainbow everything.” We don’t. Especially my spouse who thinks that if there is more than one person in the room, it’s a crowd, and for me where I think a rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon caused by the physics of refraction. (Okay, okay, don’t shoot me — I know very well that the rainbow illustrates the great diversity of the entire gay community.)
We appreciate that the event appeals to the masses. We have learned that we are not among the masses to which this event appeals. We don’t like the music (noise), drag shows, parades, or the, let’s say, “more ostentatious” displays of “all things gay.”
My spouse and I are quite comfortable in our own skin (or for me, the skins of cows), and enjoy living our quiet, suburban life among our neighbors, friends, and family. That’s it. We are no different, no better, no worse than anyone else. We do not need a weekend each year to “celebrate being gay” or to feel comfortable with our sexual orientation. It is what it is. We are who we are, take it or leave it.
Our state granted us the right to marry, which we did on April 4. Yea! for obtaining recognition from our state and our legal rights and responsibilities as a married couple. But does that drive us to want to go to a Pride Celebration?
… not really. We are proud for who we are as people, integrated with the greater society among our fellow Marylanders. We are proud of what we have accomplished, of our values of honesty, integrity, and faithfulness. To us, the feeling of pride we have in ourselves as productive people is most important. And thankfully, we don’t need a day or a weekend to feel this way. We feel it each day of the year.
What will we be doing instead of going to the Pride Festival on Sunday?
My spouse has some work to do for more home maintenance. I will be riding with a bunch of these in a charity fundraiser motorcycle ride:
Frankly, I prefer the motorcycle ride than hanging out with large, boisterous, crowds.
Life is short: have pride in who you are every day!
That is an interesting blog. Like you, here in Detroit, we are also having our own Pride event this weekend, “Motor City Pride”. I will be going to MCP this weekend. Since I am not gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgendered, you are probably wondering, why are you going to Pride? Well, I do have friends who fit in all 4 of those categories and I also support the Gay movement. Like your partner, I also don’t like crowds very much. One of the things I can’t stand is to see someone who has a glum look and/or a frown on their face and being in a place with lots of people, I will see quite a bit of that and that makes me uncomfortable. Despite that, I also like to go because of the entertainment and to see people express themselves in ways that I don’t normally see in everyday life.