Severina Blue

❝This is your only chance, Ai'Mook.❞

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 😭🥹.

The image above is a Tweet by kunwara_ladkaa that says "I'm crying so much right now (Image taken by Manuel Fernando Araújo/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 não 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.

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, António 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 support”, guarantees the man, especially because “each one is as they are and we are all the same”. “The joy I felt at this moment. I cried,” 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, António is the portrait of a condition that affects many others like him.  He lives alone, but the walls of his home are full of memories of a life shared and full of love. “Memories I preserve,” he stresses.

He's not gay, nor does he need to be to support and respect the cause.

“We all have the same color blood. We are all the same.”

Still with an emotional look glued to the photograph that immortalized his gesture at the march, António remembers: “I felt embraced by all of them”. After a sigh, he says: “See this photo? I want to take it to my coffin.”

I repeated the experiment later, wearing the boots but otherwise my usual clothing and mimicking the expression I thought I’d had at that moment. People parted like I was Charlton Heston.

I now wear that style of boots whenever possible. I recently had a man do a double-take as I walked by and ask me, politely, where I had served because I “looked like a soldier.” I’m not current or former military. I was wearing a flowy purple peasant top and looked as un-soldierlike as possible.

Wheel like you’re gonna win the Indy 500 and don’t care how.

Your crutches are short swords; walk like you can see them buried in the bodies of anyone who crosses (in front of) you.

Batty.About.Books' Queer Book Recs for UnCover's Pride Month Challenge 🌈

Good afternoon, book lovers and bookish bats! I'm so incredibly excited to share this with you today, the first day of Pride Month! As someone who constantly creates book lists (and loves a visual), Uncover is my go-to bookish app. This year, they're hosting their first Pride Month reading challenge! The categories include (drum roll please!): 🌈

Queer Non-Fiction Books ❤️ Bisexual or Pansexual MCs 🧡 Queer Coming of Age Books 💛 Gay / Achillian Books 💚 Queer Horror 💙 Trans or Nonbinary MCs 💜 Lesbian / Sapphic Books 💛 Queer Awakening Books 🧡 Asexual or Aromantic MCs ❤️

Want to challenge yourself to read more queer books this Pride Month? Download Uncover from your app store (it's available on Android and Apple devices), create your account, and start reading! Any queer books you read that fit the above categories will automatically appear on Pride Month board. Challenge yourself to read a book within every category! 🌈

While you're at it, make sure to find me @battyaboutbooks. You can find all my book guides on Uncover (where they're updated every month!). 🦇

I've also included two bonus categories for my book lovers and bookish bats who strive to read queer all year! These include: Queer Graphic Novels 🌈 Coming Out Stories 🌈

What are you planning to read for Pride Month this year? ❓ Are you joining any reading challenges (and will you join me in completing the Uncover app Pride Month Challenge)? ❓

The Goblin Throne Part III page 23 is up! Today's page: the newborn.