I went to my first pride yesterday!! The local Christopher Street Day to be exact.
It was such an amazing day! I went shopping with my girlfriend for mangas, band shirts and makeup before meeting up with our friends (E and F from my class).
E's boyfriend P told her he couldn't come because he couldn't afford train tickets (he lives 2 and a half hours away) but surprised her by turning up too with a heart painted on his cheek in the transgender colours.
E and F had artfully styled hair. My girlfriend's and my favourite gothic shop gave little packs of silver makeup glitter to everyone who joined the parade. I didn't open it because I knew it would be everywhere when I came home but the girls emptied it over their heads.
E has blue-violet hair so she looked like a tumblr-model. My girlfriend put the glitter on her cheeks and stole P's pride flag and she looked amazing.
Walking with the parade was such a fabulous feeling to be part of something so big. P casually chatted with a drag queen about makeup and everyone swayed a bit to the beat of the awful music.
When I was home again, I told my parents about it. They were really positive about it and they saw the LGBTQ that my girlfriend wrote on my arm in eyeliner. I told them it stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer.
My mum asked curiously: "And which one are you?"
I wondered if I could get away with ignoring the question, but I had actually been planning on telling them for months and I was sure the reaction would be positive since they weren't queerphobic in any way.
"Erm ... I identify as lesbian ... do so for quite a while now."
and they were quiet for two seconds or so. My dad didn't say anything, but seemed to accept that. My mum smiled at me in a reassuring manner and said: "We'll see about that."
And although she said it nicely there was one phrase hanging in the air between us: "It's just a phase."
But yeah, all in all it was a great day. My brother was genuinly interested too. Asked, what kind of people there were, if we stood out with our hair that we dyed rainbow (with hair chalk, so unfortunatly it wasn't that vibrant), who we went with, if it was fun, if the music was good.
