I set off Saturday to explore the city and get a feel for the world outside the USC campus. Up until then my world consisted of the university, my grad school advisor’s house where I am temporarily staying, and the car rides between them. There was plenty to keep me occupied in for the first few days, mostly dealing with jet lag and finalizing a draft of my first manuscript to come out of my thesis. Then with both of those conquered it was time to see what else there was to experience in this new place. After spending the morning at the Strom Thurmond gym I set out to pass the afternoon walking around seeing what I could see and meeting who I could meet. As soon as I saw a pair of women in once-white tutus covered from ears to toes in rainbow dust I realized that perhaps a tour of historical sights wasn’t going to be the main event of the day. Within minutes I found myself in the middle of Columbia’s pride celebration, which was probably the last thing I expected to find in South Carolina.

The steps of the capitol building were draped in a rainbow flag guarded by:

Washington, Washington

6 foot 10

We’re gonna have some fun

Bigots beware

Bigots beware

He’s coming

He’s coming

He’s coming

There was the requisite baptist protest contingent that were loitering after the parade had evidently just ended. They looked tired and sad. They must be realizing that they’re going to lose this one.

There is something special about pride celebrations. They bring out an incredibly diverse group of people: gay, straight, black, white, green, and every combination you can think of. The one thing everyone has in common is that they respect love, appreciate both diversity and unity, and want to see a peaceful healthy world. In other words, pride celebrations are in my opinion among the best expressions of human intention that exist. I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled upon Columbia’s festival and want to thank all the lovely people I met over the course of the day. I feel like I made many friends from all over SC and got a long list of places to check out around the city and state that will keep me entertained for the next six weeks. A list that includes good korean food, all kinds of live music, and I even heard rumors of where some populations of Colias butterflies might be. Oh yea, and Berlin finished things off with Take my Breath Away. I even had the opportunity to photograph some great humans (and a couple dogs). So without further ado, Faces of Columbia’s Pride: (click gallery to browse)

All images copyright Jason Hill 2013 all rights reserved