So I hear a lot of people talking about pride and when it's coming up and I don't really know much about it. Is it like one specific event that happens in each big city? What's it like? When I look up stuff about it, I see a lot of different types of events so how would I find info about when it is in my area?
It is a celebration to mark the Stonewall riots. That is why it is usually in June. Google Stonewall, it's when the cops used to just pop gay people in bars and the community had enough, so they finally stood up. That became the first gay community riot/march and it is further celebrated and remembered by Prides all over. Usually in Pride there are people of all types of sexual orientation, gender presentation and such, and it can get rowdy. There is usually a parade and speech about equality that reminds us the LGBT community of what we had to go through to be what we are today.
We have both a Pride festival and a Pride parade here in Chicago--both in June. The festival is the smaller event and it lasts two days. It's like a street fair. It's usually either three of four city blocks long. It's booths with vendors and food and different LGBT themed organizations etc. They usually have two or three large sound stages and they bring in fairly major acts (well, major in a gay setting or in a nostalgia kind of way). It's a lot of fun and we often attend at least one day of it. The Parade, on the other hand, we never miss. I've been every year for over twenty years. It's on a Sunday, it draws usually about a million people (literally) from all walks of life. It runs about four hours and it's a parade--there's marchers and bands and dancers and floats, cheerleaders and drag queens, lots of festive colors and lots of good spirits. Everyone from just about every politician in the area (all the way from my alderman to the mayor and the governor) to just about every major company in the area (pride organizations from the banks and the stores and well just about every major employer we have) march in the parade. There's cultural organizations and clubs--PFLAG always gets an amazing response. Seriously about a hundred churches were represented last year. Then there's sort of local gay specific celebrities--last year the first same sex couple to get a marriage license in Illinois were featured, stuff like that. It's amazing how civil and orderly it all is, especially given the size of the event and the diversity of the crowd. It's really very moving every year. There's a rally afterwards which is always invigorating and people tend to throw brunches beforehand and huge parties after. It's a great time.
Toronto has a huge Pride festival and then on parade weekend there is the massive street fair and next street over is the parade. The parade weekend has become a festival for everyone not just those who are gay. Biggest one in the world I think.
I'm curious what percentage of LGBT people plan on/have a attended a pride festival. Am I the only one that sees why people do it but still think it's kinda weird and don't wish to participate?
I went to Pride(street festival style) last week. I have pictures up if some of you want to get an idea of what it is like.
