Show Me Your Pride !

YES ! It is June which means it is Pride Month; this month means so much more than just "Rainbow Flags," "Parties," and all of the commercial branding of the word "pride." Pride is about being able to celebrate who you are without the fear of being persecuted for it. As Washington, D. C’s Capital Pride comes to a close, I look back on the fight that Marsha P. Johnson had fought and how we've come so far but still have even further to go.

Marsha P. Johnson was a well- known Legendary New York City drag queen/ bisexual trans women who fought police at the Stonewall Riots in 1969. She was the one who threw the first brick! She was also a trailblazing transgender, gay rights, and AIDS activist. She was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

From Stonewall riots in 1969, to same sex marriage finally being legalized on June 26, 2015. LGBTQ+ rights have come a long way but after what I and many other people experienced at Pride would say that we have even further to go. I can honestly say that I have never experienced something like that in such a large capacity.

Pride weekend started like normal like any other weekend. Friday me and a couple of friends went to a party called “Flaunt it” on H St. Then traveled across DC to U St. to go to Nellies which is a gay bar. Nellies is a pretty famous bar in DC, a lot of people know about the place even from out of state, so I knew that was going to be the place to be. That entire night was one hell of an adventure, and it was my best friends and teammates first time experiencing Capital Pride. So, I wanted to make sure that they were going to have fun and get lit.

Friday was a great night for us, we went out, had some drinks, and danced the night away. Then comes Saturday which is the Capital Pride Parade down in DuPont Circle. This day started off a little shaky, so I had a feeling the day wasn’t going to go that well. Either way from the time I woke up to the time I laid my head back in my bed I tried my best to stay positive.

As usual me and my current roommates we got up and started to get ready for the parade. From hair, to make up, to even trying to figure out how we were going to slay our outfits. All three of us are over the height of 6 ft tall so we know that we have the eyes on us just for that reason. As we finish getting ready, we head out to the parade, as the only person who has been to DC Pride before I tell them it’s better to park somewhere and take the train down because of parking.

So that’s what we decided to do. We parked at Van Ness and took the Red line train down to Dupont Circle. As we get there, we meet up with our other friend DeeJay, once that happened, we start to walk to the parade. When I say walk, we literally followed the trail of the entire parade route. I didn’t have much of a problem with it because I have been to DC Pride before, so I let them lead. Which is something I should’ve rethought.

After a while my best friends starts to get tired and wants to just stay in one spot, but we keep walking. That didn’t matter so much anymore because our objective changed to find the McDonalds. Which was only technically across the street but with the parade going on we couldn’t just cross the street. So, we decided to just go back to the circle and hang out over there.

If you were born and raised in the DMV when you go out places you always see people you went to school with or your family. I swear that day at Pride I saw everyone I went to school with plus some family members. As time goes on though we start to look for my teammate who we eventually found. Then that’s when the tables turned, and things started to go downhill.

As I was talking with my friends, I see this woman running and try to jump over the metal bar gates they have to hold back the crowds from the parade. Next thing I saw was everyone who was in the actual circle start knocking over the metal gates and running. I can honestly say I have never seen so many people running towards me or away from something. As I continued to look, I saw the man with a gun. As I turned around my friends were running away as well.

As you all know I recently had surgery on my knee, I am cleared to play sports again, but I still struggle with my mental strength. So, I was scared to run with the crowd because I didn’t think my leg would be able to keep up. As my brain starts with the scenarios, I see 5 people fall and start to get trampled on by all of the other people who were running away from the gun man. So, me and my best friend who wasn’t far from me decided to stand close to the edge of the bridge and speed walk. No one was on that side so that’s where we felt the safest.

After about 3 minuets we had found my other friends. We were still missing two of them, but they were stuck in Starbucks because the police but all of the stores in the area on lockdown for 30 mins. As soon as we thought things were calming down all you see speeding down the street are police, firefighters, and many ambulance trucks. Then as I turn my head to the left, I start to see people running away again. So, me and my friends are not sure what to do so we go into this restaurant who was near us to wait for things to calm down. The thing is they don’t, so we leave out the restaurant to try to find our friends again.

By this time the parade is shut down, and we were trying to figure out how we were going to get back to Van Ness to the car. The police were at Dupont Circle, so we didn’t know if it was safe for us to walk back over there. So, we had to make a choice, to walk up a hill and probably what was going to be and extra 3 blocks to the next station. Or chance it walking to Dupont Circle.

We decided to chance it and walk back to DuPont Circle because that other walk was way too far. As we get close to the station you see many police officers with their “big boy” guns out guarding the entrance. As we finally make it back to our car safely, we all are just standing around like “wow did that really just happen.”

I was disappointed because it was not only my best friend first Capital Pride but also my teammate who was with me as well. I wanted to be able to show them all of the great and fun things you can do at Capital Pride. All of that changed because 1 man pulled out a gun that turned things upside down. The fact that LGBTQ+ allies or supporters can’t even gather without fear of persecution from haters still baffles me. As someone who is bi-sexual (that is my first time actually saying it. I know what I like but I have never said it out loud.) I want to be able to love who I want to freely without the fear of persecution. I want to be able to enjoy Pride with my friends and family freely and without the fear that something may happen to me or others. I am not saying we didn’t have fun at Pride this year, but I am saying that the incident that took place at the Pride Parade on Saturday turned our fun weekend into chaos and having to fear for our lives.