I've had a fairly busy weekend with the Trump protest on the Friday and then Pride Glasgow the following day. Last year I went with one of my friends, but this year I went solo! The event as a whole had some serious issues, but I managed to be one of the lucky ones who avoided them!
The march started on the banks of the Clyde, winding its way throughout the city centre.
The atmosphere was amazing, and it was invigorating to see everyone so full of excitement and joy at being able to express themselves completely; something that we can often take for granted - we must never forget that it's a huge privilege to be living in a country where we can be who we are so openly without fear of assault or arrest.
(As we walked past this dog, a random girl in the crowd spotted it and full on yelled 'OH MYYY GAWWWD, THAT DOG'S RAINBOW!' 😂)
As Pride was being held at Kelvingrove Park this year rather than the previous venue of Glasgow Green, the march took a different route through the city. This included a rather large hill, which was definitely worth going up just for the view back down!
Apparently this year there were 12,000 of us marching which I can well believe.
Pride is well known for it's population of drag queens but we had actual royalty here too! 😋
If you've never been to a Pride event before I'd thoroughly recommend it - its such an incredible outpouring of love and support. Even if you're not part of the LGBTQ+ community, come along to your next local event and you'll be buzzing for the rest of the day, it's so welcoming.
All along the route, there were pride flags hanging from multiple businesses - many were well known supporters, some were more commercial ventures, but regardless, it was incredibly refreshing to see; especially considering just how risky it would once have been for a business to align themselves with our cause.
It wasn't just businesses either, everywhere you looked there were people hanging out of windows and waving flags of their own.
The march felt much longer than last year's, but soon enough we arrived at Kelvingrove Park.
I'm glad to report that we didn't have the same issue as London Pride which was unfortunately hijacked by TERFs
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| Hair goals right there 😍 |
There were a few floats in the parade, mostly for the big sponsors like Tesco, but this one from the Dog's Trust was slightly terrifying. Those dead eyes will haunt me to my grave.
I ended up bumping into my friend Kevin again and we chatted for a bit whilst photographing the crowd. I was hoping to meet up with another friend, Jade, who I hadn't seen in ages, but she wasn't going to the main ticketed Pride, but the 'Free Pride' up the road, so I arranged to meet up with her later on. I agreed with her that the main event really ought to be free rather than a paid and ultimately commercialised event, but as last year was such a washout with the weather, I decided to go again this year so I could see more of it.
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| My favourite sign this year, hands down |
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| 💓 |
I'd bought my ticket online this year, thinking it would be far quicker to get in than having to queue for one like last time. As the parade ended right at the entrance, I knew it would be super busy, so I decided to walk round to the back of the venue in case there was another way in that was a bit quieter. I walked all the way round the relatively small cordoned off part of the park to no avail, finding myself back where I started, now at the end of a massive queue. I had no idea if this was the line for buying tickets or for those of us with them, as there were no signs anywhere but I eventually found someone in an official tabard who confirmed I was in the right place. I don't know how long I was standing around for but I eventually got my bright pink wristband which granted me entry. The guy only glanced at my ticket on my phone, not even scanning the barcode; something I thought was odd at the time, but had no idea of the significance of until much later.
It was uncomfortably hot, and I saw more than a few paramedics hovering over people who'd collapsed or were otherwise struggling in the weather. We're not used to consistently hot temperatures, and the last few weeks have been really difficult to function in - we're not built for weather that isn't rain!
Once inside I had a look around at the market stalls, something I hadn't had much of a chance to see last year. I bought a few new badges for my rucksack but that was about it. I bought the pride flag one and the hufflepuff one last year, but the latter got lost so I was pleased to find a replacement.
Most of the stalls seemed to be giving away leaflets rather than anything to actually buy, which was pretty disappointing. Those that weren't, seemed to be all from the sponsors, so it was definitely more corporate than I'd been expecting.
The main stage was kinda small, but seemed popular enough with the crowd. My childhood favourite band Steps were to play on the Sunday, but I wasn't really that fussed on forking out £35 to see them, even if my inner 90s kid was super hyped! 😂
Scotland is currently one of the best places in the world to be LGBTQ+, but it wasn’t always the case, and this display on queer history in Scotland was a sobering, if ultimately uplifting read. Knowing that it was still illegal to be gay here just ten years before I was born is a scary thought, but considering the incredible progress that’s been made in recent years, I’m so incredibly proud of Scotland for ploughing through a history of bigotry and intolerance to build a country where all are welcome, regardless of gender or sexuality. It isn’t a gay utopia by any means - my friends and I had homophobic slurs yelled at us later in the day by two separate people, but I can genuinely say that it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced that myself, and those arseholes definitely aren’t representative of everyone here. (Both were in vehicles and yelled it as they drove by, so they were total cowards as well as idiots 😂🙄)
Fresh from leading the march, clad in a 'choose love' tshirt, our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon made an eloquent speech about Pride and Scotland's attitudes towards tolerance and acceptance of all. She began with a lovely little dig at Trump, who was (unfortunately) in the country at the time. In this increasingly scary world where fascism is on the rise, it's so comforting to know that my government is actively standing up for human rights.
I wandered about for a while longer, taking in the atmosphere and at one point stopping for a hot dog and a comfy spot to sit in the shade. It was still absolutely roasting, and I was glad of the multiple bottles of water I'd brought with me. At one point, I saw a couple of people rolling under the metal temporary fencing to get in without paying, swiftly followed by a few dozen more once the fence was pushed aside a little. At the time I just thought it was some opportunistic revellers, and didn't really see much of a problem with it, but then again, I was inside at that point...
I'm not a fan of funfairs so I avoided that part of the event, so after having some food and doing another circuit of the stalls, I headed out; it just wasn't worth it for me. Maybe if I'd been with other people I'd have stayed longer, but alas.
Instead I headed round the corner to the delightful bandstand in Kelvingrove Park, where local musicians and performers were putting on a show for everyone, totally free.
The girl above is Lisa Kowalski, who sang a few covers and some of her own work. She was really good, and one song in particular 'Immune to Love' stuck with me for the rest of the day.
It was so hot, I couldn't resist getting an overpriced ice cream!
I wasn't quite sure where Jade was at that point, but she arranged to meet me outside Kelvingrove Museum a little later on. I love KG - it's such a huge part of my childhood and adult life thanks to my dad's job, and my volunteering, so any excuse to go in is a good one in my book!
It was still way too hot so I nipped inside for a bit as it's always lovely and cool inside its thick sandstone walls.
I eventually met up with Jade and we went for a wander, meeting up with one of her friends in the local Costa, where they were doing free fruit coolers for anyone with a Pride wristband. I don't normally like ice in drinks but I had two of them, they were *so* good! It was only at this point that problems at Pride started to come out when a group of women came into the shop to get their own coolers and told us they'd been in the queue for two hours and despite having purchased expensive gold VIP tickets well in advance, were turned away because the venue was 'over capacity'! It was supposed to hold 6000 people, but considering there were double that on the march, it wasn't surprising, though very disappointing for those who'd paid and couldn't get in! Apparently people had realised that none of the staff were scanning the barcodes on tickets, just glancing at them, so you could get your (paying) friend to send you screenshots of their tickets and get in for free!
Later I looked on Facebook to see that hundreds, if not thousands of people with tickets were turned away, whilst other people were still getting in by buying on the door. Folk were passing out in the heat, there weren't enough signs, nowhere to get cold drinks outside the venue and generally it was a total shambles. While the organisers have talked about refunds and things, they failed to make a sincere apology so it's left a very bitter taste in a lot of people's mouths. I personally won't be paying for it next year and will probably just stick to the free march and other events.
Meanwhile, Jade and I went for a rather long walk to Victoria Park to meet up with some of her friends - I thought it would be too much for me after being on my feet all day but by this time it had cooled down significantly, and it was a great opportunity to catch up. A good time was had by all, having a lovely little gay picnic in the park for a few hours.
Eventually we all went our separate ways, and I got the train home from Partick, though not before our group had homophobic slurs yelled at us from a couple of arseholes on the way back. While I've dealt with homophobia online before, this was the first time I'd ever really experienced it in person. I don't get out much these days and the only 'overtly' gay thing about me is my pride badge on my bag (now joined by several more, lol) so I'm less of a target automatically by those facts alone. If you're trans or genderfluid then it's a lot harder to 'blend in' and people will jump on that. I know people who have been physically attacked just for being trans by complete strangers and it really makes my blood boil. It's just as well those idiots were in cars because if they'd been standing in the street with us you can bet your arse I would have been right up in their face about it. As it was, we just flipped them off and continued on our merry way, draped in rainbows and glitter.
I've literally never understood why some people feel the need to judge others on such ridiculous things as gender and sexual preference. It doesn't affect them, so why make a huge deal out of it? Statistically, everyone knows someone who is gay, or at the very least not 100% straight, and most folk will know someone who's trans or outside the gender binary even if they aren't aware of it.
Human diversity is to be celebrated, not shunned, and I truly pity those who cannot see it.
Anyway, on that note, I tracked my route from the day on google maps and it turned out I walked nearly 10 miles! No wonder I ended up with a massive blister when I got home! 😂
Great photos of the parade! The rainbow dog is just awesome :-).
ReplyDeleteAssholes are everywhere, it's crazy that they feel the need to harass other people. I think it's fear mostly, even if it's expressed with aggression.
PS with the previous post: if you haven't watched the complete speech of Obama on Nelson Mandela Day yet, I highly recommend it. It's on Youtube (NBC News). It lasts an hour and a half, and it's so amazing!