Health, Other, Politics

Color Outside the Lines attends the London Pride Parade

Hello! Welcome to COTL, a discussion place for BIPOC. Posted the first 3 Wednesdays of the month

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This weeks thread is an open prompt, but last week I said I’d hoped to attend the London Pride Parade & so I did.

I discuss the whole Pride aspect (with more images) over in yesterday’s LGBT+ thread.1

However in a nutshell, there were maybe a million people in attendance? Almost 600 organisations, charities & businesses walking the parade from midday to 6pm! With 6 other small-to-large concert stages around London:

Oh the difficulties in choosing where to go 😭. When & where 🙃. A Dean Street concert performance was definitely on the list though, as I’ll explain later in this thread.

I know Pride month is over butt screw it, there’s an interesting intersection of people of colour & Pride: particularly in regards to women, protests & politics.

This made me laugh 2

I think there’s been a push for better representation, at least with the parade & performances this year.

P.S. The featured image is a translation of this image:

There were dozens of parade marchers & protestors of many different nationalities & ethnicities,3 from Chinese & Taiwanese to Nigerians (where it is illegal to be gay & punishable with 16 years imprisonment &/or outright stoning in Northern Nigeria):

I wanna ride this bus 😭!

LGBTQ+ Refugees:

Last but not least, surprisingly for me there was listed online at the Dean Street concert (but not with a time/schedule 😬) a ‘Queer Asian Takeover’ performance hosted by mancunian (people from Manchester) Lucky Roy Singh: an Indian, Sikh, non-binary mother of ‘The House of Spice:’

I wasn’t lying about it being packed 😅. You might be able to find me in the audience near the front right, but it’s a real ‘Where’s Wally/Waldo’ situation.

Having talked incessantly about the FX show POSE, a show about queer people of colour performers (particularly Transgender women of colour), it was actually pretty cool to see such a thing in person. Inspiring.

Duniya Dhoom is an excellent drag performer & actually pulled off the splits dance move (that you see in music videos) on stage 4. She may have been on RuPaul Drag race UK? https://www.instagram.com/duniya_dhoom/
Pat Elle is a Bollywood-inspired Burlesque dancer who was mesmerising & quite naughty 😏 (they don’t call her the mistress of spice for nothing 🤭). https://www.instagram.com/pat__elle/
Mayumi Fukiko was an excellent singer performer & I really can’t speak highly enough about all the sign language interpreters. https://www.instagram.com/mayumifukiko/reel/C85GJ-TqekT/
Amrick was a great singer & apparently jumping around from Ibiza to London 🤟🏽.

Last but not least Minara Èl Waters (a Bengali Drag Queen Dancer):

Their Bollywood inspired WAP dance performance was phenomenal & all the ladies were dancing & singing along to it!
https://www.instagram.com/minaraelwaters/
Oh no 😳. They saw me taking a pic 🫣.

I actually went to the Dean Street concert early on to see the ‘Asian takeover’ performance group, but after 20 minutes I managed to find out they’d be last (after asking a photographer who had a digital schedule) & was able to go watch the rest of the parade for a bit longer.

This was my first ever Pride Parade & while it was buzzing & full of vibes & life, I still have my own issues & dysphoria. I didn’t mention to my mum I was going (when asked). Too much hassle, but I told a few friends & even asked a fellow Desi friend whose gay, if he wanted to go. He was feeling too lazy: & by God was he right when I got home 8 hours later exhausted 😅 (~25k steps/18km walking done5 according to my watch).

I didn’t make any new friends truth be told, despite being a friendly person. Mostly as I wrestled with my squandered confidence & where I’m at in my life. I suppose I’m only really at the beginning of a journey, but ironically for a festival about loving oneself & being out & proud, I still struggle. Still everyone in their own time I guess. The parade & the people & performers in it, gave me a renewed sense of hope & the overwhelming joy permeating the festival really does enliven the spirit. Hopefully I’ll make a better go of it next year.

Oh yeah, there’s also a General Election this Friday in the UK.

I do not have high hopes, as it seems the Tories are getting washed away only to be replaced by some other corporate bootlickers, with apparently a leftist tint… that doesn’t extend too far left for trans people (from comments Keir has made previously) & is supposedly quite racist, as can be seen with the treatment of Faiza Shaheen & Diane Abbot. In fact, they’ve been quite audacious in their purging of the left. Lettuce hope that their ability to purge ‘people that don’t agree with them’ doesn’t translate well to others 👀.

As always feel free to talk about whatever you’d like. Have a nice day.