Pride Fest

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_parade

Pride Parade and Pride Festival debuted in 1970 in memorial of a 1969 event in Manhattan (NYC) with the original focus of gay rights. At its 52th year, Pride Festival now not only celebrate LGBT+ community (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, queers, asexuals, plus...) but also encourages social and self acceptance, achievements, legal rights, human rights, and *pride*. Pride Fest is usually in late June, but where we live, the city chose to celebrate July as the Pride Month.

I have always known from groups I am a member of, that being an ally is, in some way, still being an outsider. Here are some examples.

I am on/ in several committees to promote equity, inclusion and diversity, and typically, we immediately think of racial equality for the minorities (which is a narrow definition). I have seen white allies being accused for making insensitive statements or misunderstanding the non-whites. I have also felt most efforts are spent on African-Americans and not on other minorities such as Indigenous or even Asians.

I listened to a podcast interviewing Danielle Ponder, a rising song writer-singer from Rochester, New York, and even though she became a full-time singer at the age of 39, she used to be a public defender and the reason was, when she was very young, her brother violated the "three-strike law" in New York and had to go to prison for 20 years for three misdemeanors he committed. She saw it from inside out.

I took my child to Pride Fest this year as the first major activity towards gender-affirming. We were in Manhattan, NYC right by Pride Fest in June 2021, and I did not really know what it was or did I care too much. Ally to me means supporting the community to have their freedom while I mind my own business. This year, though, I moved from the front-row audience to being on the stage. My shy child hid away behind a tree, but peeking with curiosity and excitement beaming in their eyes.