Atlanta Gay Pride Allows Those Less Seen To Sine
Gay pride celebrations took place all over Atlanta this past weekend culminating in a large parade Sunday afternoon. The excitement brought an estimated 300,000 people to Atlanta looking to show their community support. But there are those partiers and revelers that were possibly overlooked in the mass of rainbows and parade floats.
Fetishists find their own place during pride. The festivities allowing them to bring out the less mainstream aspects of the LGBTQ+ communities. One such person is Jaden who also goes by the name Pup Zerberus, who is visiting from Chicago. He loves way pride allows everyone in attendance to be themselves.
“I understand that most people don’t understand the pup community, but this is the day I don’t have to explain myself to anyone,” says Zerberus, “Sometimes I feel like people are almost too afraid to ask because they don’t want to seem ignorant.” While in the gay community pups are fairly common and accepted group, especially on social media, Zerberus understands that parents who brings their kids from the suburbs may not understand.
Pups are a group of fetishist who use the characteristics of the playful and familiar animal to enjoy a kind of anonymity during sexual encounters. Social anxiety leads people of all ages to don a pup mask.
The LGBTQ+ umbrella contains within it so much rich diversity that it is understandable that sub groups occur. The most noticeable being BDSM — bondage, dominance, sadism, masochism — polyamory, rubber and leather.
“It goes back to that idea of chosen family that we all have to find and experience when we’re young and things are scary,” said Richard Weinstein a public health administrator whose background is primarily in working with transgendered adolescents. “It’s hard coming out and being your true self and for many of us that includes all the ‘good’ stuff.”
There are many fetish events in Atlanta. The Eagle bar on Ponce De Leon Avenue is a great example of a multifaceted facility. The bar has multiple event nights per week that pertain to certain fetish groups. They host pup nights, bondage tutorials and dance parties, usually in the same week. These events are not gender exclusive. A person may get some weird looks though if not part of the scene.
“Pup nights are a blast,” Zerberus says, “but sometimes people need to understand that these nights are queer safe places.” It’s an interesting argument. While these events create a sense of community for those in the LGBTQ+ community not everyone is comfortable with straight people being part of them. Where is the line of tolerance?
“The energy is so good here. People are just so happy at pride. It stays with you for a long time, seeing how much fun everyone is having celebrating themselves,” Michael Mitchell explained to me. He came to the parade with his daughter armed with a sign that read “Free Dad Hugs.” Mitchell was inundated with hugs from young people from different walks of life who both wanted a hug and wanted to make him feel included. He explained that he came to show support, his brother is gay and he’s making up for lack of understanding in the past. As he speaks a man in leather chaps and bright green underwear walks by. “It’s pretty wild,” Mitchell says.
Pride isn’t about any one individual or groups visibility its about all participants being proud.
