02674: Pride Traditions



Ever since I started living as an out and proud gay man, my LGBT Pride celebrations have always included going to a bar or club with friends and partying to celebrate the community. In fact it was only in recent years (read: with Tobie) that I got to march a few times in the annual Pride March but even that hasn't become an annual habit. But the queer club scene has always been an important part of those celebrations for one reason or another.

We all have our own way of celebrating or commemorating LGBT Pride, I suppose. And being in the company of good friends has always been a key aspect of how I want to wave the community colors. And with O Bar being such a major fixture in our lives, it only makes sense to make the trek there. We've been celebrating LGBT Pride at O Bar ever since Tobie and I got together, which was even before they formally began to hold their annual Pride Parties (which started on a year without the Pride March proper). And that just turned up the festivities to 11 with the amazing performances by the O Divas and the increasingly special shows they put together to celebrate this key even in the LGBT calendar.

LGBT Pride is a protest but that is also a celebration of love. It's a protest that uses a message of love as a medium and it reminds the community at large and even the world that we exist, we're willing to fight for what we deserve, and we aren't going away anytime soon.

I hope you all had a great LGBT Pride celebration regardless of what you actually did. Do what you love. Celebrate the joy of being who you are. Form your own Pride traditions.

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