Pride – in the name of love
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 to this location, but people all around us were holding hands, smiling and excited to be involved in some way.
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 I would be hard-pressed to find a social cause worthy of a walk for few kilometres in stiletto high-heels - but that is just me.
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 next morning, 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. We were deeply saddened by these events and our thoughts are with the families and friends of the deceased.
Although a few weeks have now passed, and it is always difficult to know what to say and what is appropriate action, 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.
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.
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| Roma Pride, 11 June 2016 |
Some took the opportunity to strut their stuff in outlandish attire that would stop normal traffic. I must comment here that I would be hard-pressed to find a social cause worthy of a walk for few kilometres in stiletto high-heels - but that is just me.
 |
| Roma Pride Parade as it passed the Colosseum, 11 June 2015 |
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 next morning, 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. We were deeply saddened by these events and our thoughts are with the families and friends of the deceased.
Although a few weeks have now passed, and it is always difficult to know what to say and what is appropriate action, 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.
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