My first ever Charlotte Pride was an amazing experience. I love walking the streets and seeing the love of so many people be spread throughout the community. It gives me reassurance that the world can be a great place if people can be open-minded to different things and different experiences. The last time I went to LGBTQ Pride was in Indianapolis when I was in high school and it was such eye opening experience. Although there was so much love in the air, there was always periods of negativity, such as protesters being insensitive, rude, and heartless, but as a believer and someone apart of the LGBTQ community, we ignore those people who cause a distraction and a conflict to our peaceful and welcoming environment. My friends from Charlotte insisted I come to experience what Charlotte had to offer and I must say it was the highlight of 2017. I'll tell you about it! First, we road the bus from school to Uptown Charlotte, which is about five minutes east from our school. During the bus ride, I was getting to know some people that I haven't met such as Lex, Alexis, Taliah, Dejhana, and of course, Desiree. In the meantime, I really only knew Shayla due to meeting her back home in Indianapolis. However, instead of possibly getting the cold shoulder, they all had such a open heart and were so caring and I instantly connected with them. On the way, we all got to know each other and it was such a fun experience understand who they are, what they like, and the exciting things they've done. I couldn't believe I had found such amazing people within the first couple of weeks of being a new school. Besides that, the ride was cool, I got to see the city and the wonderful things around Charlotte. We finally arrived and all I could see was the love being shared from one person to another one and I was in awe of it all. We began walking the street and going to different tents to receive different LGBTQ apparel and it was so cool. I still have the buttons, stickers, and beads that they gave us! We took pictures together, played games, and even vibed at the show at the end of the pride street line.
During the pride while eating, we experienced hatred to a different level. This middle aged man was hold a hateful sign and it made me so mad, but I calmed myself down before I proceeded to say anything. I ended up climbing on the table to take a polaroid of all the love in the streets and waved it around in his face. It felt good to have those memories forever instead of on a phone where anything could happen. To move to a more positive moment, Desiree ended up winning something from this banking tent for guessing the vault code on the first try. I repeat, on the first try! We were so shocked, but so happy for her! She ended up getting her photo taken and it was pretty cool to see this happen because so many people tried to crack this code. At the end of the pride, we started to walk back to the bus station area to wait for the bus, but before we got there we ended up running into a group of Jehovah's Witness, and it was so disheartening to hear the things they said about the pride that I just ended up walking away because of the level of disrespect that came from their mouths. I remember one man said to us, "you guys came from THAT place." I just remembered saying, "What do you mean?" He continued to try to say mean things and even force his religion onto us when we clearly weren't feeling it. In the end, we all walked away, not letting them ruin our amazing experience at Charlotte Pride. Charlotte Pride is definitely a move next year and I can't wait to make more connections with the people and accept even more love from these beautiful individuals!
