Thing 151 Pride Parade

That's my well mashed face there with Sheila Fitzpatrick. Still not well enough to do much, but today marks the end of Limerick Pride Week, so I wanted to take part. I've never been involved with a Pride Week before, I've plenty of gay friends, I'm just a bad friend, so I've never taken part. Mind you, as Sheila told me today, Pride Week isn't just for the gay community - it's for everyone.

Never a truer word spoken.
For example of community spirit- I emailed The Only D last night, to see if there'd be a problem with me turning up and taking part in the parade. I'm probably over sensitive, but I just didn't want anyone thinking I was there to take the piss or anything. The Only D was properly delighted to invite me down. Which was great.

I'll be honest about this, I'm stuck in olden times, and my head is jam packed with stereotypes. I thought pride parade would be flaming... You know what I mean when I say flaming. I was thinking Little Britain Flaming. Bruno Flaming. Chris Tucker in Fifth Element Flaming. What I got was a crowd of a couple of hundred, shouting, roaring and having a ball while lifting a 60 or so metre rainbow flag through the main street of Limerick City. Shouting. Roaring. Cheering clapping. It was a banter! I laughed my ass off.

Flag was heavy. Seriously. It rained a lot. Made the flag a little weighty.

I was expecting abuse - I don't know why. I was thinking, there's going to be a gang of people shouting some horrendous crap. God knows there's enough clowns around to start acting the asshole. Not today though. Lots of cheering, horns beeping, applause. I felt kind of disappointed that I'm not gay. Where was my applause. I want a Dan Pride week... I wonder could I get enough Dans? You're right... probably not. And I doubt we'd get applause for blocking up city centre traffic, just because we're Dans...
I told Sheila how amazed I was by the really great reaction. She was surprised that I was surprised. I was surprised that she was surprised that I was surprised. This regresses infinitely. We didn't stand there all day infinitely regressing though. She told me that there's very little animosity towards the gay community anymore. Which is nice. That's a step forward.

So anyway, after a trip around town with a giant flag and an open top bus full of drag queens, I got to chat to some of the revelers. I was still on my "I thought most people were afraid of homosexuality" buzz. So I spoke to a few of the crowd. There was an excellent atmosphere, and zero negativity, in fact, I think I was probably the most negative person there, and I spent most of the time laughing at all the funny gay jokes that were going around.

Good day out. Pride Week really is all about the fun. And who doesn't want to be involved in a festival of fun?