I’ll leave this mostly to pictures but Pride this year was amazing. When I had my first girlfriend back in 1996, I never thought marriage equality would ever become a thing or even that Pride festivals existed. I was just a kid in love. Now I take Pride very seriously and treat it as the celebration it is!
I ran the Big Gay 5K for the second year in a row, having previously ran the Gay 5K in Nashville before moving to a Denver. As with last year, this was a suck fest of a race. I’m still trying to regain my rhthym following my broken foot in March but I was determined to beat/ crush my time from last year. My time in 2016 was somewhere around 35 minutes but this year, I came in at 27:49! I was really pleased even though I almost fell out in the last half mile. The race course is uphill the first half, hot due to the time of day and time of year it is held, and there’s not much shade. However, despite it sucking, I love being out with my people to support a cause so important to me. So it will be a race I run every year, so long as I am able.
After the race, the huz and I joined up with some friends and went to brunch. On the way, we were called “disgusting” by some crazy homeless man but my rainbow self let that go. After brunch we hit the festival in the blazing sun.
Following a long, sweaty day, we retired for the night because the next morning I had the pleasure of marching in the parade. My friend, Nicole, helped carry the colors along the route.
After the parade route, it was back to the festival, where I worked a booth talking with other LGBTQ veterans. Following working the booth, it was back to festival fun. We met these Air Force guys I dubbed the “shirtless wonders,” who were lots of fun but they joked about jumping on the stage during the color guard presentation in which their friend was part of the guard and I had to remind them why it was a bad idea: it’s only been a year since Orlando. Our community is still wary and cautious. Do not do anything that could be misinterpreted as an act of aggression. Also, some kind stranger gave me an awesome button. Oh, and of course I did laundry on Saturday night, as you will notice mostly the same outfit between both days. I need more Pride clothes!
Another excellent outcome of the weekend was my chance to talk with the Denver Women’s Chorus and in September I’m looking forward to auditioning for them so I can finally have a singing community to be a part of!
Hopefully in late 2017, I’ll be back on a stage but if nothing else, I will get to socialize with a community of women and that is something I greatly look forward to.
So, in a nutshell that was my Pride Fest weekend. Lots of fun!