NYC Pride 2018

Last weekend we got up at some ungodly hour to drive to New Haven because it was time for Pride. We parked at New Haven and got the very slow train into New York.

We’d both realised the month before that we had no rainbow clothes to wear so had hastily ordered things online and as we got closer to the city we saw more and more people dressed up. We got off at Grand Central, it was quite good that there were so many people dressed in rainbow themed clothes because we weren’t sure which way to go on the subway so we just stalked some other girls who were clearly going to Pride.

 

We weren’t sure how early we needed to get there but we made it in good time and saw all the police officers getting report, actually this wasn’t even all of them, they had a ton of police on bikes too. There was a police officer on every corner, officers in cars, bikes, motorbikes, marching along with the parade… I had never seen so many police officers. It was ironic really because the whole reason the march started 49 years ago was because of police brutality causing the Stonewall Riots.

But it was nice to watch things getting set up.

We lined up by a barrier in the shade, it was meant to be overcast but the sun was fierce. We saw a couple of nutty christian protesters… I’m never sure what these people hope to achieve, do they think someone will read their signs and have a sudden epiphany? I mostly just noticed the poor font choice, they were almost impossible to read, a couple of times they went to cross the road at the designated crossing and everyone booed them.

This guy made sure to loop round extra in front of them but I’m not sure they enjoyed the view.

The parade route was longer this year, we actually only stayed a few hours but it went on for 9 hours… Kim got sunburn after a few hours so I assume I would have been taking home a pile of ash if we’d stayed until 9pm.

We saw Billie Jean King the tennis player who was a grand marshal, we also saw Lea DeLaria from Orange is the New Black, lots of politicians who I didn’t personally recognise as I can’t face following the USA news too closely since that tangerine baboon has come to power.

There were lots of fancy costumes.

And fancy floats.

And a ton of mostly naked people, we saw a lot of… parts (this is the polite way of phrasing that). We made a hilarious buddy at the barrier, Ricky, a tall effeminate gay man who was a make up artist at Sephora but appeared to have applied his foundation with a builder’s trowel and it slowly melted off during the time we spent in the sun. There were a lot of straight tourists that came to watch the march (good!) but they seemed to be the worst ones for trying to push past all the gay people who had waited at the barriers for hours (bad!).

Here’s a couple of moments from the march –

After Kim’s skin started to look like a little ham we decided to go for some lunch and were almost headed back home when we realised Kim’s friend from school Joe was at the march so we stopped to see him quickly which was nice as he doesn’t live in CT anymore so Kim doesn’t get to see him often.

And still the parade went on…

And then we walked back to the subway to go home which was a task in itself because it was like a maze to cross any roads in the area. Next year we might try out Boston…

Renaissance Faire & Hartford Pride

The weekend before last we got tickets for the Renaissance Faire in Lebanon on Groupon.

There were birds of prey and different animals about.

They also had jousting but the weather that day was terrible so they had to stop early because it was too wet for the horses.

I don’t know what I was expecting but the Americans went hard on the theming, Kim and I didn’t dress up and we were in the minority. Everyone kept putting on dodgy English accents too but no one could pronounce the place names they were supposedly from. I distinctly heard someone pronounce Norwich as ‘nor-wich’.

Kim got a ticket from the Sheriff.

And we went to a witch burning, but in the end the wet weather won out and we gave up.

The next day was Labor Day and Kim was working but I decided to do a little labour of my own and got round to some weeding in the garden.

I guess it would have looked more impressive with a before and after shot… never mind.

In other news, we saw some more wildlife this week. A lovely looking raccoon in our neighbours garden out in the day. Kim said this meant it had rabies but I googled it and that’s just an old wives tale. We also got brought a thoughtful gift from Barclay cat in the form of a northern short tailed shrew on our porch. I’ve never seen a shrew before but it was OK, just a bit shell shocked so I picked it up with some gardening gloves (apparently they’re venomous?) and put it in a box to have a rest before I let it out again in the forest by our house.

We bought a new bench to go in our upstairs bedroom which Bunny the cat has adopted as her own.

This weekend we went to Stop & Shop, a different grocery store and we discovered the British Aisle (as opposed to the British Isle?). Finally I can get marmite, squash, lemon curd etc.

They also sell candles with the pope on them, so… there’s that.

And slanderous magazines. I remember Kim had a magazine once that said it contained the Duchess of York’s baby scan photos… as if?! I honestly don’t know how they get away with the silly things they say unless it’s just that royal family doesn’t care and ignores them.

We got a lot of autumnal themed things and Kim planted the chrysanthemums.

This weekend we went to Pride in Hartford. It wasn’t a march but more of an event and they had stalls you could look round and a ton of free pens and stickers and tote bags etc. There was a stage with different acts, I wasn’t sold on the acts so I chose this view behind the massive red afro.

It was OK but I prefer a march I think.

Afterwards we went to Bushnell Park for a little walk.

Sunday we went to IKEA and spent about $2,000 on a ton of furniture for the house but on the plus side now Barclay can sit at the new table with us.

Gay Pride Norwich 2016

 My friend Tasha and I decided we’d go to Norwich Gay Pride this year and so we were all set to drive together when there was a huge accident on the main road to Norwich which closed it completely. Luckily Tasha knew an alternate route and we doubled back on ourselves, finally got to Norwich through the traffic, parked and made it to the Pride parade with about 4 minutes to spare.

A lot of people had dressed up or wore rainbow themed clothes, Tasha and I had rainbow temporary tattoos we wore on our faces (we’re cool).

The police made a real effort for Pride, including one of their cars that they got decorated. I liked seeing the gay officers march but I think it’d be good if nurses marched in the parade too.

There were a few companies who had employees marching which I thought was nice and they handed out free things. Lots of whistles and singing.

My favourite is always the rainbow dogs, I only saw a few with dyed fur this year though.

There was a samba band led by a man in a jungle tarzan-esque outfit dancing at the front and a clown float thing but Tasha and I thought there should be more music.

We followed at the end of the march to go and get something to eat and met two police officers who let us wear their hats for a photo so that was funny. I think the parade was longer than last year but there still needs to be more music and it’d be better to have nurses in the march as well as police officers.

Norwich Pride

 The other day I was thinking about how I was a bit of a shit lesbian because I’d never been to Pride (or to gay bar) and then I realised it was actually Pride this weekend so I asked my friends Nancy and Sarah to go with me. We got there early to browse through all the stores and we got some rainbow flags.

Then we took our place on the parade route.

And then a sea of rainbows!

It was so bright and a lot of people clearly made a lot of effort with their outfits.

We weren’t really sure what to expect but it was a fun environment.

Some of the people in the parade were from companies, and I know it’s controversial because some people think they shouldn’t use it as a forum for advertising but I personally like the free things and say hurrah for stickers, pens and free half chickens!

  The parade finished outside city hall and the samba band stayed there for a while.

Even the Norwich Lions at City Hall got dressed up.

There were lots of canine supporters too who all seemed really excited to be in the parade.

We all agreed that Norwich needs a dog parade. Cute!