my heart pants for pride

today was filled with torrential downpours and winds that turned people's umbrellas inside out. it was also filled with beautiful gorgeous screaming people waving flags ringing bells singing crying laughing.

very pride-a-licious with jo and libs- at the end of the parade....soaking wet (hi, that's dirty) but happy. (that's my fake a-stranger-is-taking-this-picture-and-my-camera-is-getting-soaked smile).

to intensify my near-nonexistent glaminess and femmishness, i wore a pink sequin and lavender satin tutu...

our soakin' and stinkin' feet

my girlies


i march in pride for lots and lots of reasons, most of which i'm not going to get into now. yes, despite my hesitations, i went into the city, skipped the birthday party, and marched with madfemmepride. i thought to myself...which thing will i remember more 20 years from now? and of course marching came out on top. but mostly i wanted to go to honor my girlies pictured above, and all my wonderful friends who welcome me into their arms with love and understanding. who are getting married. who rock. for everyone in my life who's queer or misunderstood or prejudiced against in any way. thank you for being you and letting me be me.

i felt a lot of things today, and definitely saw some haters along the way. at one point i was feeling a lot of sadness about some of the looks and comments i saw being tossed around from members of the lgbt community. but then something beautiful happened. there were two women cheering us on from the side of the road, a couple (i think). the looks of love and complete happiness for us marching, saying "thank you for marching!" and smiling and waving with such joy wiped away any negativity i was feeling. there are people out there who can't march or who might be too afraid to march or who are just plain old inspired by watching other people march. that made it all worth it.

madfemmepride poster

the ultimate best part of the day was when jo looked at me and said "pride is like my birthday. it's better than my birthday". or something very close to that. she gets more excited about freakin' pride than her birthday. people call her and say "happy pride!". seeing her happy was worth any pneumonia that i'll get later from being so cold and wet.