London Pride 2016 — We marched strong
Having lived in the UK for nearly 7 years, I finally made a debut at the London Pride 2016.
It was an emotional day, especially after a series of sad news we have been facing in the past few weeks. Orlando shooting. Brexit. All too depressing… It was about time we talk about Love Not Hate. Inclusion Not Exclusion.
My first ever pride was with people from HER, a social network app for gay, bisexual and queer women. I chose to march with them because I’ve always felt we need more women to represent the LGBTQ community.
In the morning of a very much anticipated day, we gathered at Cavandish Square Gardens just off Oxford Street. We put on a special HER T-shirt and got some face/body paintings going. Rainbows… more rainbows please!
We arrived to a designated starting point at around 11.40AM but still had more than 1 hour until the official starting time at 1PM, so I decided to have a stroll to get a coffee with my friend who joined me for the march. And boom! The barista gave me like 5 extra loyalty stamps to offer me a free coffee! Ahhh, so much love, love is everywhere today.
After a long wait, the parade finally started with a massive cheer and roar.
I was astonished.
With the number of people who gathered to show us their love, support, acceptance and encouragement.
I was deeply touched.
With all the claps, whistles and cheering they offered to us. My vision got blurred on more than one occasions, as my heart warmed up with such beautiful moments.
As curious and analytical creatures, it is our human nature to label and categorise everything — even ourselves. Age, gender, nationality, colour, religion, culture, sexual orientation, physical/mental ability... the list goes on. Now, this is not a bad thing. If fact, I personally think that the ability to ‘sort’ is one of the key traits that enable us to do nearly everything we do.
But things go wrong when we start applying filters through labels, excluding according to differences, and forcing one way over others. Sadly, this tendency has been too prevalent and dominant in our history.
What moved me at the pride was the sight, where we just gathered as whoever the hell we are, to show that we can fight against these mistakes, and scream out for one thing we support — #nofilter
Despite marching under the sun for nearly 3 hours, jumping up and down, dancing, chanting and high-fiving, I felt ever so energised afterwards. I’m so glad I did it and will be doing this every year from now on.
Love Not Hate.
Inclusion Not Exclusion.
I truly believe this is the way forward. And the pride proved that many others share the same belief. So let’s keep marching strong, fellow believers!
