Listen closely and hear Freddie Mercury belting out the melodies of the top Queen songs. The sun beats down on the tye-dye shirts, crazy colored hair, and rainbow flags that adorn many of the people standing around waiting for the main event of the day. Throughout the parade, there were 60-year-old men and women riding motorcycles, and there were 60-year-olds tugging on the leash to a dog wearing a hot pink tutu. Within my first five minutes at pride, I saw every type of person imaginable and then some.To my left I see a man in khaki shorts and a plain green shirt, to my right I see a person in full drag- glittery eye makeup, short dress, and fabulous hair pulling together an outfit extravaganza, and up the street I can see a sign that reads “I am proud of my daughter… and her girlfriend too”. I stared at this sign, and even as a half an hour parade of colorful extravagant people and floats came through I kept looking up at that sign and the people under it, and the people around me. I couldn't help the cheesy emotions that bubbled through, as I felt connected to each and every person that was there. I felt our struggle unify, but instead of anger, we celebrated. Celebrated the possibility of getting married, celebrated our favorite movies and tv shows that had characters just like us, and celebrated because in the Pittsburgh Pride Parade I saw people from my future college marching through - supporting the LGBTQ+ community, supporting me.
That's what pride is all about after all, love. People wanting to love people. Pride is the celebration of the ability to get married, to stand up in front of friends and family and say this is the person I love and I love them more than anything else in this world. Pride is about love, and from the second got there I could feel the love in my heart and soul. I saw it in the smiling strangers, I saw it in children's beaming faces, and I saw it in the way people interacted with each other. Love swam around my mind and my memories and reminded me of the people who have loved and supported me. I felt the love of a learning mother, who may not understand but shows love and compassion. I felt the love of a brother who once got into a fight because someone called me a slang word, which he later asked the meaning of. And I felt the love of a best friend since birth, who looked over at me during the pride and said: "Grace, I don't think I've ever seen you this happy". I don't know if she was right, but I'm finding it hard to recall a time where I have ever felt so much love in one place, and it moved me to tears (happy tears, of course, this day is now in the standing for the best day of my life).
There is something truly amazing about strangers coming together and loving and accepting each other, especially when you think about people and communities that will turn their back on children and teenagers who they have known their whole lives. And if you are someone who is struggling with understanding an LGBTQ+ person I would like to remind you that when you love someone and accept them you have to take the good and the bad, the laughter and the tears, and the struggle and self-discovery, even if you don't understand it. Being at pride and watching the way people interacted with each other was amazing, everyone was beaming larger-than-life smiles, and having an amazing time together. I am from a smaller community, and by far a more conservative one, seeing this huge example of coexisting was breathtaking. This always-present support group is nothing short of amazing and can be found on social media platforms easily if you need to reach out to somebody. I think every LGBTQ+ individual should attend pride at least once because the acceptance that you feel there has stuck in my heart and mind as a pure example of the power of love, and how easy it is to positively affect the people around you.
