I first went to Pride in Hawaii last year, and I had a great time marching down the sunny Kalakaua Ave , smiling and giving the shaka to people. This year, being in New England, I had the opportunity to go to Boston, Rhode Island and New York. Each was great. Some people dismiss pride as flashy, stereotyping and frivolous, but I love it. Pride is a great time for positive reinforcement. Walking in the parades in Hawaii and Boston, I felt so much energy from people smiling on the side, cheering and waving rainbow flags. It was a huge celebration, all about us and our allies. What a great idea. A gathering of people celebrating support and love.





For anyone still coming into their queer identity, Pride is a great place to be. If you are concerned that being gay means settling for less, not being accepted, or generally feeling sad most of the time (I used to feel that way), then attending pride could be a really positive experience for you. At pride, you will see a lot of happiness and support. One of my friends saw an older lady holding a large sign that said: "I love my gay son." What support! PFLAG is always at pride, and they do a lot of good work, and I hear that they are good to talk to about parents who are not supportive. Also great is the Trevor Project , and they can be easily found at Pride. You will also find that there are all kinds of queer organizations for youth, queer religious and non-religious organizations and queer organizations for all racial identities. And if you're more concerned about your career, you can also meet queer people with careers at banks, lawfirms and engineering companies. There is a whole world in which queer people comfortably fit, and it's all on display at pride in the marches and the festival booths.









Yesterday at NYC pride, I saw Coca Cola, JC Penny, Google, AT&T and many other companies showing their colors. They all wanted to be a part of the action, and I felt very proud to be American. I don't write this in mockery. I really mean it. Right now in America, we have a shift happening of greater acceptance, and companies are recognizing this. At NYC Pride, queerness was more than acceptable--it was HOT. Us queers were the cool kids at Pride, and Coca Cola wanted to party with us. Coca Cola is about as mainstream American as you can get, and having them there with us really means something.





You could say that Coca Cola was just riding on the positive energy of pride and the positive associations people will have with Coca Cola after getting free Cokes at pride, but I'm perfectly fine with that. Seeing Coca Cola at pride means that we have made it in NYC. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos, but just imagine it: the most fabulous men and women handing out Cokes in shiny silver bottles, to a crowd of hands and smiles. America!









Despite having Coke with us, we haven't lost our unique queer subcultures. At pride, they were all very much alive. The bears ran wild, people hailed praise to the drag queens, lesbians rocked their styles and bikers roared their machines of joy. Normally, I would get pissed at the cacophony of mopeds needlessly gunning their cylinders, but at Pride, it was a sound of celebration. Everyone was at Pride, out loud and proud, representing their subculture. Normally, drag queens would get looks of misunderstanding, and maybe event looks of disgust, and this is terribly judgmental and ignorant of them. But at Pride, people were posing with drag queens and cheering them on, before the parade had even started. I wondered to what extent drag queens were perceived as props at Pride, but I think it was mostly positive affirmation.





I especially enjoyed pride, because I got to see so many queer people. I loved seeing the diversity, from the young highschool groups carrying banners all the way to the elderly waving from the insides of buses. I saw before me a whole range of experiences. I saw wedded couples happy to be together, and that made me happy. I saw groups of transgendered people proudly marching, and I cheered for them. I saw really hot guys dancing on floats, and that was exciting. I also saw politicians making their speeches about equality and this being "your day," and again I felt happy to be American. I encourage everyone to visit pride. I am sure you will find something that will uplift your heart (and maybe another organ too).