The Adventures of Jessica Sideways

As I have let on numerous times in my last post and in my day to day conversations, yesterday was my 21st birthday. It was also the day of the pride parade. And to be fair, I didn’t just attend the parade, I marched in it with my fellow UUs and my friend Judy. It was a very high energy event and I was very excited to be a part of the parade. True, it was hot and I wasn’t wearing a suitable hat, let alone sunscreen with a suitable SPF (15 is not enough, I tells ya!), but I am definitely doing this again next year. ^_^

We stepped off from Cheeseman Park at about 9:30 am and we were placed in front of Front Range bears and somewhere behind a LGBT event float from Wyoming. I was surrounded by my fellow UUs from First Unitarian, First Universalist, Jefferson Unitarian, Prarie Unitarian Universalist Church, Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Columbine Unitarian Universalist Church. Judy and my favourite lesbian couple from First UU hit it off quite well and I was quite energetic. I was waving, shouting and trying to pump up the energy of the event as much as I possibly could.

It was so affirming to see many of my friends from the community on the sidelines of the parade. However, it was also kinda sad to see the three people during the parade holding signs that said things like “Sodomy = Sin” (holding them in front of the Catholic Church that wasn’t too far away from Broadway and Colfax, none the less). But it showed me that even though there are still people that are prejudiced against people of different sexual orientations or gender identity, they are starting to shrink in population to the general population. There were thousands of people at pride and having only three that were trying to harass people there was not such a big deal.

In closing, I would like to say thank you to all the people who made Pridefest happen. To all the volunteers, the fellow marchers in the pride parade, the Quad Coordinators and the professionals at the GLBT Centre of Colorado, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. When I was volunteering alongside you, you were never afraid to answer my questions (as numerous as they were) or to offer advice. I would also like to thank all the vendors and all the people who attended Pride. You made volunteering at Pride one of the most fulfilling things that I will ever do this year. And a very big thank you to the Mountain Desert District UUs. Thank you for having a contingent in the parade so I would not have to march with the Gender Identity Centre of Colorado