Yesterday I had the delight of attending the Bristol Pride March. I was there as a representative of Bristol Mind, and guests of the Avon fire service.
Although the weather wasn’t as kind as it could have been the parade was much as you would expect for a Pride March. Lots of colour, lots of noise and lots and lots of people claiming their right to walk freely through the streets of Bristol.
I had the delight of being interviewed by BBC Radio Bristol and my comments were shown on their social media, so that was fun.
I always enjoy pride events, and this was no exception. The difference with this one was that as guests of the fire service, we were positioned at the start of the parade but (for some fire service reason) didn’t join the parade until the end! The delight of this was that I got to observe the whole parade from a terrific vantage point. I noticed that I was getting a very strong emotional reaction to the messages and banners of support directed at the trans community.
What I realised is, that the discourse in the main stream media and social media has been very anti trans for a couple of years now. BUT……In the real world the voices of support are much more common. The nasties are noisy, and that hurts, but the love is there. And I really felt it yesterday.
Update…….
I have just found this on the BBC’s social media. Features me! Twice!