![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
just_the_things32. Walk in the Capital Pride Parade
I walked in the Washington, DC, Capital Pride parade for the first time ever this month! It was an extreme mix of emotions. I enjoyed hanging out with the ace & aro group, chatting and discussing various things. I also got an ace flag painted on my cheek and got genderqueer-colored pride beads. And, as it turns out, my boss was with a group whose staging area was just down the street from mine, so it was neat seeing her outside the office in a different context.
I was NOT prepared at the validation I would feel walking down a street and having thousands of people clapping and cheering for me. What a strange, amazing sensation. I'm just... me. I'm confident in who I am, and just being me, I get applauded? It was amazing. Less amazing was when people started screaming and sprinting past me and there were reports of an active shooter behind us. The parade stopped before we got halfway and then my group stood there without anyone behind us for about half an hour before we were told we could go, that the parade was cancelled. Luckily, no one was shot, but people were injured when people started running and panicking. My first time at Pride with this group was the night of the Pulse shooting, so I wasn't feeling especially celebratory afterward and ended up heading home with some of the group members. From a group on the Metro, I learned how to do a pole dancing move, though, so it was a fun way to end the emotional roller coaster of an event.
I walked in the Washington, DC, Capital Pride parade for the first time ever this month! It was an extreme mix of emotions. I enjoyed hanging out with the ace & aro group, chatting and discussing various things. I also got an ace flag painted on my cheek and got genderqueer-colored pride beads. And, as it turns out, my boss was with a group whose staging area was just down the street from mine, so it was neat seeing her outside the office in a different context.
I was NOT prepared at the validation I would feel walking down a street and having thousands of people clapping and cheering for me. What a strange, amazing sensation. I'm just... me. I'm confident in who I am, and just being me, I get applauded? It was amazing. Less amazing was when people started screaming and sprinting past me and there were reports of an active shooter behind us. The parade stopped before we got halfway and then my group stood there without anyone behind us for about half an hour before we were told we could go, that the parade was cancelled. Luckily, no one was shot, but people were injured when people started running and panicking. My first time at Pride with this group was the night of the Pulse shooting, so I wasn't feeling especially celebratory afterward and ended up heading home with some of the group members. From a group on the Metro, I learned how to do a pole dancing move, though, so it was a fun way to end the emotional roller coaster of an event.
