(Originally posted 5 July 2016) We were in Rome and excited for our first pride parade, never having had the opportunity to attend Joburg Pride in our home city. We caught the Rome metro to the Colosseum – what better place could you find to watch Roma Pride? The anticipation built up as the parade took a long time to get to this location, but people all around us were holding hands, smiling and excited to be involved somehow.
Amongst all the joviality, you must not forget that Pride Parades have an important social and political purpose. But the party atmosphere is overwhelming. Couples, singles, mothers, fathers, dancing divas, people walking their dogs, and mostly friends – seemly a combination of old and newly introduced – walked the streets of Rome declaring that love is all that matters.
Some took the opportunity to strut their stuff in outlandish attire that would stop normal traffic. I must comment here that we would be hard-pressed to find a social cause worthy of a walk for a few kilometres in stiletto high-heels – but that is just us.
After the festivities, we left for home in good spirits and proud to have witnessed such a positive and fun social stand by the community in Rome on 11 June 2016.
The following day, we heard the devastating news about the massacre at Pulse in Orlando, US.
One day that included much happiness on one end of the world ended in terrible sadness on the other end of the globe. These events deeply saddened us, and our thoughts are with the injured and the families and friends of the deceased.
By the time we wrote this post, a few weeks had passed. It was challenging to know what to say, but we felt that we should post about something positive from that day. A day where we saw so much pride – all in the name of love.