Week 4:
Reflections from Pride

July 7, 2019

Last Sunday was the Chicago Pride Parade, and as a part of the Youth Services staff I joined young people and their families in marching in the parade. This was my first pride as an out and public trans guy, so participating in such a visible way means a great deal to me. Before I get to the excitement of the parade, I’ll summarize the events leading up to Sunday. Friday night was my first time with the prideCreate kids, and we had a great time painting a picnic table rainbow. The picnic table was already a part of our outdoor furniture and I hope we can paint more furniture rainbow at a later date. We also played a modified game of charades as we waited for the first coat to dry.

My friend Jean, another Cornell student, visited me this weekend from Wisconsin and I had a great time showing them bits of the city. I used the Facebook group Chicago Queer Exchange to find the best fried pickles, and we drove to Handlebar in the Wicker Park neighborhood after my programming at Youth Services. The pickles were worth the hype, and we enjoyed checking out flyers for local queer music events near the entrance. 

On Sunday morning we got decked out in our best gay and trans gear, stuffed a bag full of snacks, and headed towards the nearest purple line stop to take the train to the start of the parade route. As we walked to the train, a few cars surprisingly honked in support. The train was packed with rainbow folks and we had to squeeze to get off the train as we were getting off at the earliest spot. When we met with youth services folks, young people were making signs and painting themselves and each other with body paint. I took the risk of painting a trans flag and rainbow on Jean’s face, which turned out fairly well for me not being artistically inclined. Before the parade, we all introduced ourselves with our names and pronouns, which is nearly instinctual now that I’m four weeks into queer youth work. 

Marching in the parade was amazing, it was so affirming as a transgender person to hear and see people cheer for me as I proudly walked wearing the trans flag as a cape. It was absolutely wonderful to see young kiddos, older folks, and families all together in support, as many queer people have to seek out chosen family. The energy was amazing as we zigzagged through the historic gay neighborhood, Boystown with the 3 miles or so of the parade route. Being transgender is so often a part of my identity that I’m hesitant to display publicly, so it meant a lot to be supported while being explicitly trans.

I only work Tuesday this week because of the national holiday, so that’ll give me some good time to recharge before diving back into all my projects, many of which are ramping up.