Pride!!

This post is a bit late in coming, but with our internet down at home and all the people who could potentially fix it out of communications range for a week, things have been a bit chaotic. But anyway. Enough excuses.

This weekend, I was privileged enough to experience my first New York LGBT Pride. Actually, it was my first Pride experience anywhere, as the queer scene in Wisconsin isn't exactly something that captivates the attention of large numbers of people. I could fill up pages upon pages with exuberant, exultant adjectives to convey how much I loved it, but suffice it to say: it was FABULOUS.

Although the culminating Pride Parade in Manhattan took place last Sunday, Pride technically goes on for a month, with festivities and local festivals in the other boroughs building up through all of June. Since Memorial Day weekend, it's been impossible to walk 3 feet in the West Village (historically the gayest part of the city and also the end point of the parade) without tripping over a rainbow flag, a table full of pride paraphernalia, or someone handing out leaflets for a drag show. Pride in NYC is a big, big deal. Given that I attend a church that is a tremendous champion of LGBT rights, and that organizes more pride events than even the biggest enthusiast could possibly keep track of (and also that I've been volunteering with a church-run program that provides a safe space, arts workshops, and a weekly meal to 30-60 LGBT 13-21 year-olds, many of them homeless), it was impossible for me not to get sucked in.

So it was that I found myself parading down 5th Avenue on Sunday, alongside a surprising number of fellow New York Episcopalians (and a rather spectacular float), decked out in rainbow-themed attire and rocking out to the Lady Gaga that deafened the entire city all day. For a truly eye-opening experience, I recommend doing all these things alongside a dozen priests in collar (a good number of them women), and watching the facial expressions of the onlookers as they try to figure out how a clerical collar and a pride flag fit together. It was both surprising and incredibly encouraging, how many people cheered us on as we walked by. It is so urgent that our society start shaking off the belief that Christianity and homosexuality are irreconcilable, and I was deliriously happy to be able to do a very small something to contribute to that process of disbelieving.

After walking from 38th to Christopher St. (30-odd blocks) in 90 degree heat, I spent the rest of the day rejoicing in the glorious truth that proud, gay Episcopalians really know how to have a feast - pretty sure I ate 3 full meals between the hours of 4 and 6 pm. Turns out they're also incredible singers, as I discovered while losing half my body weight in sweat at St. Luke's Pride Evensong (turns out wearing vestments in an un-airconditioned building is miserable enough to make even me less enthusiastic than usual about acolyting). Good thing there was more amazing food afterwards - I really needed meals 4 and 5 after that.

I'm so very glad that I'll be living a mere 90-minute train ride away from all this fabulousness next year, because I would be rather put-out if this were to be a one time only experience. Pride 2011, here I come!

Pictures to follow as soon as I can get my laptop to a place with fast enough internet.