Pride

Side-note before the post actually begins: I know I have not posted a recipe in a while. Does anyone have a specific request of something I've fed them or talked about making?

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It's June, which to a queer man like me is basically Christmas over and over again. It's the month of Pride celebrations. Last year, I went to three different prides, including making a journey down to Chicago for their  celebration and parade. I've got a friend down there I can stay with, and it just so happened that the Pride parade fell on her birthday. We joked that the parade was thrown for her, and what an amazing birthday it must have been for an amazing gay woman (she once explained to me that she preferred to be called gay rather than lesbian, as gay is an adjective, where lesbian is [often] a noun)  in my life.

This year, I made it to the pride festival in Grand Rapids. Unlike previous years, where the festival was out in the buoys in a park in the middle of nowhere, this year they had it right in the heart of downtown. This was to celebrate the 25th anniversary, as well as a result of a different sponsor putting it all together. I was extremely eager to go, especially newly being in a relationship, and I was even more excited about the fact that it was downtown.

Long story short: the schedule was not made clear anywhere (except in a booklet you could get at the festival itself, but they ran out before we arrived), and the festival itself--at least what I saw of it--was sub-par. Typically, the schedule would be posted online a few days before the festival, and you could plan out what groups you'd go to see perform. There were also usually tons of booths from various organizations in the area, some with information about what they do, some selling artwork or jewelry, but all filled with wonderfully talkative people.

They took the booths down at 7. My boyfriend and I arrived at 7:20. So much for me showing off how amazing West MI Pride is.

I admittedly have a bit of a skewed view of festival this year simply because I didn't see it at its peak earlier on in the day. Regardless, to me, it felt like going to Thanksgiving only to find out no one brought pumpkin pie.

THAT BEING SAID...

I am overjoyed that it was able to take place downtown. I hope this tradition continues. It was pretty damn awesome not having to feel like we were hiding off in a park somewhere where no one would accidentally see what's going on.

-QV