Pride YMM~

Today was... busy.

The Pride YMM event was on today! And I went! And I dressed up, of course, and it was really warm with that wig on, of course. But my makeup was awesome and my blue hair looked great.

AND, I talked to three complete strangers, and had brief but friendly conversations, and did not die from anxiety! In fact, I hardly felt anxious at all during those brief talks, which was... unexpected and very atypical.

Also, I introduced myself with the name I plan to publish under (if I do come up with anything submit-worthy for that magazine), and it felt natural to use it, so that's great.

The event itself was... underwhelming, which is what I expected. Typical of any Fort McMurray public gathering, honestly. xD At least there was live music? (They tried!) And lots of rainbow everything everywhere, of course. :D It was supposed to go 4 hours, but I left halfway through, after the speeches, because I'd had more than enough crowds for one day. It was enough to show up, anyway.

The important part is that there was a lot of people! Of all ages! Way more people than I was expecting to see. And, at least during the time I was there, there were no... well, homophobic assholes protesting the event, or anything like that. It was just a nice, low-key, family-friendly thing, and I'm really happy that we were able to have something like this, because I was so worried that it would go badly.

I feel very... well, I've never felt supported here, in this regard, by the city overall. But it feels good to know that people like me are willing to try to carve out some sort of niche here, and if we get together, maybe we can actually do something.

Maybe, if Pride YMM decides to hold something similar next year, I'll volunteer for it. I was actually considering volunteering to help with setup this time around, but decided not to because it felt like biting off more than I could chew. (Plus, I'm dog-sitting, and I can't leave them home unattended for that many hours.) But... next year, maybe.