it was 100% peaceful. the mood and music were a bit more contemplative than last year - i danced and cheered the later stage performances anyway - but we made our slogans heard and several rainbow clubs came into existence which makes bureaucracy much easier. i was going flagless the years before because i was terrified of being outed publically, although i know i'm bi for longer than a decade, no one has ever seen me with a man on my arm unless i'm yelling somewhere in the taemin tags, and had my first private coming out 9 years ago: contrary to my social fears i had a great time and stayed until the last themed speeches were over :) my town has CSDs only semi-regularly despite huge demand/need for visibility and working against the many local instances of discrimination, but since we elected a gay mayor things look slightly better for us. even in a smaller town. imagine kpop demon hunters, gaga, cher and britney being blasted in this grey, straight, catholic, bland, depressive, corporate- and ww2-ruined rural area. the sheer volume of our parade had people on the pavements and balconies dumbstruck to begin with lmao to my surprise no one was shouting at us, they either smiled or froze like WHAT THIS IS HUGE lol. funding and organizing community events (and sexual/mental health support) is so important bc i was surprised at the amount of bi and lesbian people in attendance, there were so many gay couples showing up holding hands, so despite the political climate closing in i feel like we're making huge steps being more resilient, cool, aware, educated, and vocal than ever and nothing can hold us back from shining.

I didn’t catch that the original photo attached to this post was AI-generated. Sorry, my bad 🤦‍♀️ fuuuuuuuck AI and thanks @bigbutter for pointing it out!