I know I owe an explanation for why we are almost halfway through July and I am just now posting most of my Pride Month content despite the fact that Pride Month was last month. But sadly, I don’t have a good enough explanation, I just ended up doing other things that were not my blog, kind of like a lazy vacation.
Secondly…
For this post I am just going to be sharing pictures from the Pride events I went to in my area. This was the first year I actually went to events for Pride and also the first year I volunteered to help with the events also. This post is mainly just a photo dump of the events and the very next post will be my coming out story and lessons I have learned along my path.
I hope you enjoy and that you all had a happy and safe pride month if you celebrate it! If you don’t celebrate it, then it’s still ok as long as you don’t try to take away the rights of others who do and as long as you are not hateful to the people who do. Everyone has their own path in life and their own way they deal with the world, for some that means celebrating the month of June and for others it may not mean celebrating even if they are part of the LGBTQIA+ community also.
This was me at the first event which was in the next county over from mine. It was a pretty good turn out and I enjoyed volunteering at the event with Planned Parenthood, though I would have liked to be able to participate in the event more.I took this picture of the American Flag next to the pride flags because seeing these flags together in an area that has always seemed to be pretty homophobic made me feel really proud that day. I saw a lot of love and support by community members including parents of many youth who attended.Since there were vendors at the Pride picnic, my supervisor thought It would be a good idea for us to have activities for people to do which would provide entertainment and also help raise donations for planned Parenthood. She was in charge of a tie dye station and I was in charge of a painting station where people could paint on canvases. this was a good idea in theory but in practice things got kind of messy.I know people have differing opinions about police, but I just thought this situation with the Mascot of my first college posing with the cops that were at the event was pretty funny.This is a picture I took of two pagent winners. I forgot what pagent the person on the right was in. The one on the left was the winner of Mr. Gay Elmira. I just thought they both looked fabulous, and I needed a picture.This is a picture of me with Mr. Gay Elmira. It took some courage, but I was able to get the strength to ask for what I really wanted, which was a selfie with him, and to tell him how much I loved his outfit!This is a picture of my town mayor and two other people. I think the one on the right is on city counsel, and the other is just another citizen. I did not work up the courage to talk to the mayor because he seemed too busy. Maybe next time.These next two photos were just balloon displays in shop windows in a historic building in my town.This is a children’s book that my local library was giving away for free in honor of Pride month. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list of things to do as well as a book review.This was a cool dream catcher I saw that I really wanted. There were vendors at the resource fair and park event in my town, too. Sadly, however, I did not have more than 2 dollars on me, which I spent on a pin with my pronouns on it.These were two cool dogs I saw at the event during the drag talent show. I took some pics of them and other dogs I saw around the event because who doesn’t love some cute doggos!These next photos of the canvases were set up with the intention that we would all make a shared mural of our own ideas of what a rainbow is. I made the little tiny rainbow between the bigger rainbow and the heart with the two initials in it.This is one more selfie of meall prided up with a temporary face tattoo and the pin I bought from my friend’s vendor booth, which has my She/They pronouns as those are the ones I prefer to go by, but any will do just fine.This is another selfie I got the courage to ask for. It’s a picture I took with one of the drag queens at the park event that I loved. They also performed in the show and did a wonderful job.In my community, and I’m sure elsewhere as well, the local Planned Parenthood has a lot to do with Pride and the events that take place for the month of June. That’s why they were there, and due to the fact that I have just completed an internship with them, I thought to volunteer. This is the make your own safe sex kit station we usually put up along with some free PP pride merch.This is another pawesome (see what I did there) dog I saw at the park event.These were some neat tumblers being sold by one of the vendors that attended. I wanted to buy the lip one, and I may if I ever see them again, but for now, I’ll stick to my Disney Villians tumbler.As with the event the next county over, there were many different local non-profits in attendance at the event in my town for members of the community who are in need of resources. This was one of the agencies that had a booth.I still have no idea what this random kite thing was doing on a random sign, but I thought it was pretty cool looking, so I took a picture of it. It was located right next to the drag talent show, but there was only one and only one sign, so I don’t think it was actually an intended decoration.This is a close-up of the pin I got with my pronouns. I got it this year because I figured it was finally time to proudly declare the pronouns I prefer. That way, maybe people are more likely to use them.This was another one of the vendors that attended. they are a tea and health beverage shop in my local mall, and the guy with the hearts on his shirt is also a professional psychic.This person in the chair is my friend from my first college, and it was their booth that I got my cool pin. It felt nice to see them again for the two events (they were at both) and to support their business.This is the final dog I saw and took pictures of. This one has such a pretty coat.The next few pictures up until the videos are pictures of the drag performers for the talent show. this first person was announced to be a bio female drag performer, which was a term that I had never heard before. Apparently, it means that she is a natural born female who loves the art of dressing up in drag style makup and costumes. I wasn’t able to make it to the performance in time to get a video of her singing, but I was able to get this great picture of her.This is one of the people I got a selfie with earlier on in the day. It’s the Mr. Gay Elmira, who did a gymnastics/dancing routine.This person was the other person I got a selfie with earlier that day. They are one of the drag queens that attended the event. They performed a pretty beautiful song.This person was the one who was hosting the talent show. They go by the stage name Amber Skyy. I had never gotten to see them perform because it is hard to find where to get tickets for their shows, but This guy also performed a song. I particularly loved his voice it was very smooth and powerful. This guy was one of the other pagent winners that I took a picture of earlier.This is the start of the videos, I think… they’re a bit out of order. This really was a very well done song. And They looked stunning!This was seriously one of my favorite performances. They really have some talent.I already said how I felt about this performance. It was very passionate and powerful.This is a picture I took when I got back home of all the pride merchandise I got at the event. All of ot but my pin was free and my pin was only 2 dollars. My glasses were like 70 bucks from zenni, but they don’t technically count as Pride merch because I’ve had them for at least half a year.This is one final piece of pride merch I forgot to put in the picture with my other merch, but it was so adorable I couldn’t not show it!This is my final picture to show. I didn’t even have to pay for this it is a glitter tattoo thing that they were doing at the face painting booth. I couldn’t get my face painted, but I got this. It was done by painting glue on using a stencil and rubbing a large amount of glitter on before the glue drys. It lasted for like 3 days before I had to manually scrub it off.
All in all…
It was a wonderful pride week, and the 2 pride events I went to were awesome. My plan for next year will be to go to more Juneteenth events too it was hard this year because the event I was volunteering at happened on the 17, and even though Juneteenth isn’t until the 19th, that’s when my town does their events. I probably could have made it to both if I wasn’t volunteering, but next year I’ll try harder.
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