Hurray! It’s Tacoma Pride Day!

Oh…my…gosh! It has been a very long time since I’ve had a more enjoyable time than I did today.

 

Lisa and I traveled to downtown Tacoma to take in Tacoma Pride Day to support the event and check out the wares. (I also took nine copies of Womb Man:How I Survived Growing Up in a Booby-Trapped World to the King’s Books table to be offered for sale; those that don’t sell during the festival will be housed at King’s Books until they do.)

 

We visited every booth and got lots of free goodies and a few paid goodies: t-shirts, buttons, and rainbow-motif glass items. (I got Lisa a glass rainbow motif spoon or soap dish–whichever way she wants to use it–and she got me a glass business card holder.)

 

The t-shirt I brought home (I hope it fits!) reads THIS IS WHAT TRANS LOOKS LIKE. I figure I’ll wear it when I appear in public to talk about Womb Man or at other LGBT-centric events…

 

The button choices were out of this world. I grabbed a number of them. One of them has the international NO sign over the top of the word HATE. Another says Ask my pronouns. Others read, ” [My pronouns are] He, Him, His” , “She, Her, Hers” and “Trans men are men. Trans women are women.”  A Planned Parenthood button reads, “Don’t F*** with us. Don’t F*** without us.”  (Yes, the asterisks are on the button, too, not just in this blog post.)

 

Among the best t-shirts I saw being sold or worn was this one (worn by a guy): “I’m not gay. My husband is gay.”  Another one that I wanted to buy–and will, online!!!–reads, “Treat every person as if they will save your life someday.”  That one resonates with me because I know that a lesbian saved the life of the GOP legislator who was shot recently (a legislator who votes against every pro-LGBT bill that comes across his desk) and I remember the black guy who saved the life of a white supremacist.

 

What I loved most about the event was the obvious love and acceptance that radiated from every direction–from the vendors to the many thousands of attendees, and from the attendees to the vendors. Three or four LGBT friendly churches had booths there. At least two of them–a Catholic church and Immanuel Presbyterian–sponsored the event. (So see–not every religious person is a far-right whack job. Far from it!!! A lot of religious folks are LGBT! We believe that God loves all of us, and we think He/She smiles on people who love and frowns on people who hate and/or judge.)

 

The crowds were HUGE and 100% wonderful. The vendors were wonderful. The emcees and music were great.

 

I really think everyone should attend a Pride Festival and see what it’s all about. Doing so would allay a lot of fear and I think there would be countless additional allies afterward as a result.

 

Of course, it is an errant hope that homophobic and trans-phobic people would be caught within a mile of these events…but that is their loss and tragedy more than it is ours.

 

The vendors haven’t seen the last of me. I got a business directory (free) that has only LGBTQI-friendly businesses listed in it. I plan to advertise in it and to choose my local service providers from it.  It only makes sense to do business with kindred spirits. (Why enrich people and corporations that don’t have a real heart for LGBTQI folks like me?)

 

I filled out a survey for Tacoma Older LGBT. Among the questions asked was, “What is your sexual orientation?”  I chose “Heterosexual male” from the available options (“homosexual female/lesbian” was among the options but I’m not homosexual even though I’m female, anatomy-wise) and then added in parentheses “I probably present to the general public as an asexual (disinterested) female because my anatomy dictates how society sees and treats me, and I don’t like being considered a potential eligible female partner by straight men or lesbians, so I am more aloof and standoffish in public than I actually prefer to be.)”

 

The next question was, “What is your gender identity?”  I answered, “Same as above: heterosexual male. (I may have been born intersex and altered to a female binary as an infant, or else I am naturally transgender.)”

 

(Again to clarify: sexual orientation determines who you (want to) go to bed with; gender orientation dictates who you (want to) go to bed as.”

 

That survey had me scrambling several times to explain my status accurately. I think I managed, but it required additional explanation; simply marking a given choice didn’t always explain me sufficiently to make sense to whoever will be reviewing the information…

 

Other than the 10 to 15 minutes it took to complete the survey, Lisa and I wandered the whole time, meeting terrific person after terrific person, and I wasn’t at all hesitant to reach out to any of them, which is a HUGE difference from how I feel about reaching out to the general public when I’m out and about.  I felt freed to be me today, for the first time ever. After writing Womb Man, I knew this needed to be the next step. I needed to get out there and claim my identity with pride. This was the perfect venue for that. I saw other beautiful people who were out, loud and proud and I felt blessed to be among them and in kinship with them. It felt more like family than my own family feels to me!

 

I saw teenagers all decked out in the ways they wanted to be regarded, too, and it was just wonderful. (What beautiful,  sensitive young souls walk among us!!!)

 

I’m happily exhausted this afternoon. It was a wonderful, wonderful day!!!