So I Went To My First Pride March, Here's What Happened:

My university has an LGBTQ society and one of the annual events is the Pride March across campus. It's booked before hand and while it is in part in protest, it's also about visibility and celebration. Admittedly I'm a a member only on paper since I'm usually too busy or tired for the events, but this one I didn't want to give a miss. So here's how that went.

I met up with my current girlfriend and we decided to get a few pieces of paraphernalia. Feeling empowered with glitter and rainbows, we went to the meet-up and, well, met up with people. Some new faces, some familiar ones, some familiar ones in fabulous make-up and a sea of unknowable faces.

The turnout was pretty big.

She and one of our new friends ended up helping more marchers with make up and we found ourselves a the back of the pack but it wasn't too bad. The march had started, there were a couple people with speakers to blare music but it actually wasn't that loud.

Which was one of the first things I experienced, a march isn't all like the TV montages with pop music edited in. At least ours wasn't. We had the distant chimes of a bluetooth speaker severely under-equipped for the load of people. The crowd kind of just drowned them out.

The second thing was that long marches in the sun take their toll.

Our route wasn't super hectic, we did a lap around the main inner portion of campus, but there are lots of bodies and there's lots of sun. Luckily girlfriend was also clever enough to stop for water beforehand. Even with that, you should probably be wearing shorts and a sleeveless and applying sun screen. You should also be prepared to meet your steps goal.

Third thing? Your voice will be gone.

Queer people love cheering. We're great at it. We love good moments. And each one gets a crowd wide cheer. On top of that, to compensate for the lack of music we kind of had a chant going. So add all that together plus shouting how cool things are at your girlfriend in the crowd and say goodbye.

The fourth thing is that glitter will get freaking everywhere. Why do we love glitter so much? I mean, I get why but still. This shiny and wonderful substance is almost worse than sea sand.

Finally, I figured out that this whole thing? It's fun. And validating. And makes you feel like a goddamn warrior. People will give you looks and people will stare but you keep your chin out high and sing that Lady Gaga you can barely hear as loud as you can and give each woooooooohhhh all you've got and your first pride will go great.

Also, hopefully you're going with someone as forward thinking as my girlfriend was.