Mine happened in the mid '80s, when it was called Gay Pride. I was out to my parents, I had my first boyfriend. We wore T shirts with an inverted pink triangle and joined a march around London until it finished in Hyde Park for a free pop concert with various big bands (Erasure, Tom Robinson et al).
I remember we stopped outside No 10 Downing Street and chanted “Gay Rights!” repeatedly, then moved on.
At the start I saw an open deck double decker bus with guys on top yelling out “Coooeeee!”.
I didn’t go again to Pride for many years - next with my current boyfriend and got to see how much it had changed - from a protest march to a celebration. It changed over the years allowing us to march initially to only registered groups - gone was the spontaneous marching - gone was the free Party in the Park.
It was very corporate and the parade was separated from people by fences. It felt like a joke. I was physically and emotionally disjointed. It was comodified and meant absolutely nothing to me as someone who got kicked out by a homophobic landlord not long prior to it. My rights weren’t helped. The western queer rights continue diminishing while corporate profit off of it and they will and already do turn their back on their rainbow merch because it no longer makes as much profit. I’m sadly single and never managed to actually date someone as opposed to just going out on dates. My background is already very niche, my interests are also niche, being queer and intersex I have an extremely tiny plausible dating pool which I’m yet to discover.
My first one was in 2008, when I was a high school junior. On one hand it felt good to be there with the one friend I was out to, and I ended up feeling really close to him because he spent the day dealing with me and my big swell of emotions.
On the other hand, I felt kind of invisible still, and like I didn’t really fit into the wider queer community. There wasn’t a lot of bi presence, and there seemed to be a bit of an undercurrent of that being seen as “cheating.” Even if I don’t identify primarily as bi anymore, that still leaves a bad taste in my mouth all these years later.
And then some kids were canvassing for Obama support as well, and that made it feel a little weird. Not bad per se, just weird.
I’m only 19 and my first pride was in 2017 in NY. My mom took me and wore a shirt that was supposed to be in support of me being trans but it made it look like we were dating. Multiple people sold me alcohol. It was hot as fuck and almost everyone was naked or almost naked lol. 10/10
My first pride, I was overwhelmed with the emotion of having found my people
Since then, my awareness of the politics, and corporate influence have taken the shine off of it. I still love being with my community, but my awareness of how far removed it is from its origins is something I can’t unsee
My first pride was in Toronto, mid 1990s. It was fun. For some reason I attracted the attention of the leather crowd even though I wasn’t into leather. I hung out with the leather people for like four days. It was fun and educational. Made lots of new friends, hooked up with guys who were like me, not into leather, and had a blast. The leather community back then was super tight and friendly to everybody. Still have friends from that time when I met them.
