London Pride 2013

Warning: one of the pics might be slightly NSFW

On Saturday 29 June, I travelled to London with my friend Jayne and her dog, 'Poopie', to march in the Pride in London Parade, along with half a million other LGBT people & our allies.

From left to right: Jayne, 'Poopie' and FTM Diaries.

There were some incredibly diverse groups participating in the parade. Amongst them were big corporations such as Google, Tesco, BP, Microsoft and Facebook; public organisations such as the British Armed Forces, the Environment Agency and ambulance, fire & police services; and religious groups including Christians Together At Pride, Imaan (LGBT Muslim Support Group), Keshet (LGBT Jews) and not forgetting GALHA (LGBT Humanists).

The atmosphere was wonderful: everyone was in a good mood, from the participants, to the stewards, to the police, to the people who turned up to cheer us on. And the people who were cheering us on were wonderfully varied. Sure, there were plenty of LGBT people of all ages, shapes & sizes cheering us from the sidelines... but there were plenty of people from other walks of life too. My favourites were an elderly (straight) couple cheering enthusiastically as we passed them... and this wonderful Muslim mother in a hijab whose son was covered in LGBT stickers, including two LGBT Humanist stickers (if that doesn't give you hope for the future of this country, I don't know what will):

Hope for the future?

This enterprising participant found a unique answer to that age-old question of 'how will we find each other in this crowd?' (his partner was dressed similarly):

How to spot someone in a crowd...

And this character was the living embodiment of an old South African expression of surprise from back in the 1990s - "Oh, my fucking hat!". Yes, those are dozens of inflated condoms:

Love that hat!

The theme of the day was 'love and marriage', because many of us have been pushing the British Government to fully legalise same-sex marriage. So for me, the absolute highlight of the day was when a lesbian couple with whom we were marching got engaged during the parade. What a perfect day to propose! I'm sure they'll remember it for the rest of their lives.

We had a great time walking through London for several hours, and what really astonished me was the huge numbers of people who took time out of their day to stand at the sidelines and make us feel welcome. It was a brilliant day out and I'm looking forward to my next Pride in a couple of weeks' time.  

But one thing struck me when I got back home: my family was a little put out by the fact that I'd gone off & spent some money on something entirely for myself. I haven't told them exactly what I was doing in London (although I think they might have guessed) because of the hostility & negativity I encounter when I do anything to honour my LGBT identity. London was such a refreshing change from the casual malice I tend to face at home. 

Isn't it strange that I needed to travel more than 100 miles, and be surrounded by hundreds of thousands of total strangers, in order to feel at home - and when I returned to the place where I live I felt like an outsider again?

© All pics & text copyright FTM Diaries 2013.