The above is a video shared by smrchildsadness on Twitter, showing a person participating in a pride parade exchanging a pride flag with a person standing on his (am using his pronoun based on the TikToks/Tweets of what happened) doorway who had a Portuguese flag. There are sounds of cheers and crying and the two people hug each other as they exchange the flags. The man at the doorway then waved kisses to the crowd within the pride parade.
The Tweet says: "NO YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HE WAS WAVING THE PORTUGUESE FLAG BECAUSE HE DIDN'T HAVE A PRIDE FLAG AND THEY TRADED FLAGS AND HE'S SO EMOTIONAL TO GET HIS OWN PRIDE FLAG I'M EMOTIONALLY RUINED"
For context, apparently they were worried that maybe he's a nationalist because he was waving the Portuguese flag and some nationalists opposing the pride march were waving that flag. But upon interacting with him, it turns out he didn't have have a pride flag and he wanted to wave *a* flag in support of the pride march. So they had an exchange and now he has his own pride flag ππ₯Ή.
The image above is a Tweet by kunwara_ladkaa that says "I'm crying so much right now (Image taken by Manuel Fernando AraΓΊjo/Lusa)". The image shows the same man from the pride parade crying as he hugs his new pride flag.
The above image is a Tweet by dudz_zZzz that says "ainda nΓ£o parei de pensar nele," which according to Google translate from Portuguese to English is "I still haven't stopped thinking about him." The image is a drawing of the person from the pride parade, crying as he hugs his new pride flag.
Posts were made on July 1, 2024.
His name is AntΓ³nio Fernandes, and you can find the original article where he spoke about this event here
This elderly gentleman lives alone in Porto, when he saw the march coming up his street all he knew was he wanted to participate, so he ran home to get the only flag he had to wave as they passed by, when they did he was overcome with emotion and called over one of the activists, they hugged and exchanged flags, he felt so overwhelmed that he could only hold it and cry.
This isn't a story about a closeted elderly man, AntΓ³nio lives and has been living alone for many years now and that little moment made him feel included in something for the first time in many years.
Says the article:
"The act was "of supportβ, guarantees the man, especially becauseΒ βeach one is as they are and we are all the sameβ. βThe joy I felt at this moment. I cried,β he recalled, still emotional when looking at the photograph offered to him during this report.
However, even though it reached thousands of people, the moment screams a feeling of belonging, of joy and also a portrait of loneliness as a consequence of aging.
Behind that door, whose image spread across the country, AntΓ³nio is the portrait of a condition that affects many others like him.Β He lives alone, but the walls of his home are full of memories of a life shared and full of love. βMemories I preserve,β he stresses.
He's not gay, nor does he need to be to support and respect the cause.
βWe all have the same color blood. We are all the same.β
Still with an emotional look glued to the photograph that immortalized his gesture at the march, AntΓ³nio remembers: βI felt embraced by all of themβ. After a sigh, he says: βSee this photo? I want to take it to my coffin.β
