Celebrating Pride 2020
Girlfriends Films Honors the 50th Anniversary of LGBT Pride
This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the Pride Festival, and in honor of this milestone, our Girlfriends Films in-house columnist Stylene gives insight on what it’s like for a lesbian experiencing her very first Summer of Pride in this exclusive editorial.
Lesbian-Filled Summer
For most people, summer starts in June. It’s a time to be free, do as you please, and not have an ounce of care in the world. The freedom that is celebrated for many was usually celebrated specifically on Independence Day, with the rest of July filled with beach trips, boat rides on the lake, barbeques, and pool parties. As the month of August approached, people slowly started to wind down – preparing to go back to school, work, and whatever responsibilities required. . . . and this is summer . . . for most people. But a lesbian filled summer? It looks a little bit different.
When I first came out and started becoming more “up to date” with the LGBT community, I didn’t realize how different it would be compared to the previous summers around my friends and their boyfriends. I had never thought twice about activities that took place, what days were being celebrated, or how those days were being celebrated. Then, in 2017, I became very involved in my city’s “gayborhood” (neighborhood where all the gays hang out). It turns out, gays and lesbians have a different way of celebrating summer and the holidays that follow, with June being the first true month that people get excited to celebrate.
Fifty years ago, June became the month of LGBT pride – with the very first Pride parade as a kick-off to celebrate gays everywhere and anywhere.
For me, the kickoff consisted of back-to-back parties, getting drunk in the bars down Main Street, and meeting many girls whose names I can’t remember today, and faces I only happened to see throughout that summer. July’s Independence Day also happened to be celebrated in the bars, and let me tell you something – Freedom feels much more free when you’re taking red, white, and blue Jello shots off the body of a goddess who has nothing on but some pasties and a thong. While you may think Independence Day is all that’s being celebrated, the next day, July 5th, is apparently National Bikini Day. Whether you’re a lesbian, a man, or any person who likes women, you welcome this day, Hell, you embrace this day. Because a woman in a bikini is something that we should all definitely celebrate.
Summer was celebrated differently with the LGBT community, and it was celebrated in a way I didn’t know existed that can be summed up in two words: Party mode. When August came around, the party mode I expected would die down continued to carry on. While most people were getting ready to enter into their typical work and school-related activities ,we were still managing to drink ourselves away in party mode, celebrating the end to all our Pride festivals and parades. Celebrating our “out-ness” and, most of all, celebrating each other.
Whether you’re gay or straight, I have found that celebrating summer in the LGBT community is set up for many different parameters on what it feels like to be carefree during these three months of having no responsibilities. And I have found that people know how to celebrate their freedom on a much larger scale than just Independence Day alone.
Happy Pride!
–S. Tylene
