I went to Pride yesterday. Second time I’ve gone, and I dressed up a bit. Scared me to be honest, dressing like that but that’s the point of Pride, right? To be who you want to be.
So I’ve got my Borderlands Psycho shoes, my Pride socks, cyan and pink tights from Snag, my tarot skirt, and that’s all fine. But what do I wear on top?
I settle on two things. First, my red mesh top from Ecce Homo. But this is Scotland and I don’t want to be quite that on display, so my “binaries only matter in code” shirt will go great with this outfit!
One problem. I look in the mirror and I don’t love it. The shirt is too long, so I do something I’ve been thinking to try for ages and cut the bottom off, exposing my midriff.
I am immediately much happier with the outfit but also terrified. I’ve never worn something like this even though I’ve thought about it a few times and my feelings about being overweight and putting my hairy belly on display rear their ugly head.
But I ignore them, I send some photos to people I know will cheer me on, and I go out.
And everything is great! I meet up with my friend, we do the march, we go for boba and pho, we have long chats about anything and everything… Best date I’ve ever been on (not a romantic date, just friends hanging out to be clear).
Everything is great in fact until we head home. That would be the point at which a gang of people on bikes go past us jeering. But whatever, that’s a momentary thing – easy to ignore.
The real kick in the teeth was getting to the train station and having a bunch of belligerent drunks start yelling “put that away”, “no one wants to see that”, and “there are children around”.
It’s fucking hurtful, it put a painful end on an otherwise fantastic day, and it really hammers in why we need things like Pride. Why we need representation that will stand up for people who are different and treat them like people rather than spreading hate and fearmongering.
The general election is in a few weeks and I’ve been getting election propaganda through my door. I don’t know who I’ll be voting for, but I can tell you who I won’t be voting for.
I won’t be voting for the Scottish Family Party and their pledge to get rid of anything that isn’t a normal nuclear family.
I also won’t be voting for someone who is a thorn in the side of her party over matters of principle which put trans lives in danger, no matter how effective she is against the Tories.
So fuck you assholes. Fuck you Scottish Family Party, and Joanna Cherry, and JK Rowling, and every other person who wants to say who we can and can’t be, whether that’s because you think a badly translated book from two millennia ago told you to think that or you’re just bigoted.
