Pride parade questions...

Um, so this weekend there is supposed to be a local Pride event.

I've heard about it at my LGBT center and it gets some news coverage each year. However I haven't been back to my LGBT center in over a week, I haven't gotten to talk to anyone about it, so I'm not really sure if I'm going cuz I'm too anxious, but I was just wondering:

A) Do people usually have to sign up with someone or some organization in order to take part in a Pride parade? Or can you just show up?

B) Would you feel awkward and weird going by yourself to a pride parade? I have nobody to go with, I've felt very lonely lately and have enough problems with social anxiety, I don't want to go and just be reminded of how alone and isolated I am not having anyone to talk to.

C) Do you get dressed up all in rainbows and stuff? As usual I'm fearful of being a victim of homophobic violence if I dressed up as flamboyantly as I'd like to, how do people usually dress?

 

Thanks for the responses.

The thing is, this isn't really like a real parade like the NYC LGBT Pride March they have in Manhattan marching down Fifth Avenue (which I'd love to go to but would be even more anxious about going alone to), this is a dinky local thing that I think is actually sponsored by the LGBT center itself. Maybe I'm wrong, but I really doubt there will be many spectators, in the area where this takes place I'd be more worried about homophobes looking for targets.

Maybe I'll pay a visit to the LGBT center today and ask them about all this, seems kinda wasteful to travel all the way there and use two train fares just to ask about this, but I don't have many options I guess since the event is this weekend.

 

Ya, have you made the trip all the way from the U.K./Ireland to go to it in the past?

 

Ugh, it seems like there's a conspiracy against me going, I was headed off to the LGBT center like 2 hours ago, but I couldn't find my shoes, I was on the floor looking for them for like 10 minutes, then I backed up hard into the sharp corner of my open armoire door, it hit me right where I already had a bruise from fighting with my stepfather, hurt like hell, the brand new white shirt I put on got torn and bloody. After dealing with that, I then had to spend an hour digging out every drawer and cabinet looking for my Metrocard to pay the train fare.

The thing is, I've been so looking forward to going to a Pride event for so long. In my senior year of college (last year), I was in a much more confident and much prouder state of mind, that's when I came out to my mother, I was wearing rainbows and stuff and couldn't wait to go some kind of pride march. Unfortunately last year the circumstances also conspired against me.

Last year SI Pride was held not on the 1st but June 2nd; I remember both because that is my birthday and because it was the exact day I flew to Moscow for the summer to study abroad last year, hence couldn't attend SI Pride, and I was also away from NYC for the whole summer so couldn't take part in NYC's LGBT Pride week either. (I was also one week late for the illegal Moscow Pride parade, which usually ends in trouble and arrests :eek

After a year of depression and retreat back into the closet, now that I finally have the opportunity to go to one, suddenly I'm overtaken with anxieties and fears and thinking of not even going, and it really pisses me off. :bang:

But I guess I'm off to the LGBT center just to see what they say and how it goes!

Edit: And, on my way out, I just finished spilling red Gatorade all over my second outfit of the day, more clothes ruined and I need to change again, ugh. If there is some god creature out there thinking it's going to stop me from going to Pride with all this, it's wrong. But fml. :tantrum:

 

Okay, I'm sure at this point nobody is paying attention to the rantings of a lunatic...


Thanks for all your answers and advice though, I really appreciate it!

I went to the LGBT center, it turns out their new social worker just started so I met with him and expressed my concerns about Pride. And so I was asked if I wanted to be a volunteer to help them set up for the festival and set up tables and keep people in order for the parade and even march in it myself, I got a big purple volunteer button. I have to be there like an hour earlier, but at least hopefully this will give me some sense of purpose in being there rather than wondering if I'm just going to be wandering aimlessly.

Anyway, I'll let you all know how it goes, hopefully all of you are going to your Pride events coming up soon too!

 

Hey, thanks for all the support, I'm at Pride now posting from my phone. Marched in the parade, now there's music, pretty fun. Plus I'm now walking around decked out in 'Free Bradley Manning' signs.