Pilot Ridge Pride Parade

[Event !]

Despite the relatively small size of Pilot Ridge, the town was close to Burlington and in the middle of a very liberal state. One that had a large LGBT population and which had been ahead of the curve in the U.S. for several LGBT rights, including marriage equality.

Then, two days ago, the Supreme Court ruled that there had to be marriage equality in every U.S. state and territory. It was a proud day, it was a happy day, and it made this year's Pride celebration all the more meaningful.

The Parade started at noon, with various groups marching or driving. A few people were on motorcycles or bicycles. There were rainbow flags and smiling people everywhere.

[Stefan Spencer]

Stefan may not have ever considered marriage for himself, but he believed that anyone who chose to walk down that road should be able to.

And of course, any excuse was a good excuse to party. Stefan was definitely enjoying himself. He'd let his usual suit and tie behind and was decked out in a neon pink v-neck t-shirt. Somewhere along the way he'd been given a rainbow flag, which he had draped around his neck like a cape. He'd even found a rainbow cane for the occasion, though with the amount of alcohol in his system right now he didn't really need it. He wasn't planning on retiring to the halfway house tonight anyway. Surely with all of these gorgeous people parading happily around, he'd find some other place to go tonight.

Right now, he was grinning from ear to ear. It was such a high to be surrounded by so many happy people and so many bright colors on such a beautiful day. Not to mention those who were taking the chance to show off some skin.

[Grady Mitchellson]

Grady was a bit nervous to be at the parade, but had decided the monumental event that he would enjoy looking back on and having been a part of. After all, he hoped to one day make a difference in the lives of the LGBT community, what better way to start getting involved than participate in the pride parade? So he had forced his super shy self out of his comfort zone.

But it wasn't just the crowd that had Grady feeling nervous. He was scared of being spotted of someone who knew him personally. Grady was not ashamed of who he was, but he was tired of explaining it. He just wanted to be seen as who he was without having to give an education on gender and sexuality. And speaking of sexuality...he wasn't exactly out to anyone about that yet. Yes, his family and friends knew he was transgender. But none of them really understood that he was still into boys. He figured he would give them a chance to deal with him being trans before he threw in that he was gay as well. After all, it wasn't like he had a boyfriend or anything.

Still he was proud of himself for being out. For being a part of something bigger than himself. And the high of being around so many joyous people was starting to override his anxiety.

[Katya Moschella]

On Friday morning, the news traveled fast. First the ruling was announced; then Katya woke up and checked her facebook, as usual; then her roommates woke to the sounds of her delighted shrieks. When she called her brother Abe, he was as amped as she was, having already seen the news. It didn't matter that Vermont had already established marriage equality for years. It didn't matter that their home state of Florida had followed suit back in January. They'd celebrated then, of course, but this was the whole country! Every last united state of America! Nothing would stop them from celebrating now.

Come Sunday, nothing had managed to dampen their excitement yet. In fact, with the announcement of Pilot Ridge's impromptu parade, Katya thrummed with so much energy every move threatened to lift her off the ground. With a rainbow tutu that matched Abe's and a face-splitting grin that matched everyone around her, she marched hand in hand with the brother whose coming out had helped pave the way for her own. Katya knew that her other brothers were celebrating too - Ivan in California, Eric and Leo back in Florida - and while only having her whole family there could improve today, she just couldn't be sad. The whole crowd felt like her family today.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Graduation at Hammel was all the excitement Marnie had expected that weekend. The ruling came totally out of left field; she hadn't known any kind of decision would be made one way or the other or at all, as occupied as she'd been with the end of senior year. The discovery that her Aunt Roz, the only other meta in her family and already visiting to see her walk, was a lesbian was also new. Had Marnie's parents never mentioned it on purpose? It wasn't like she and her aunt had much contact. 

When the news spread of the parade on Sunday, it was Roz's idea to join the celebrations. Her parents were somewhat... lukewarm about the prospect, and Marnie was sure that if she'd asked to go on her own they'd ask questions she didn't much feel like answering. But tagging along with her aunt was another story.

Once there, though, Marnie had balked at the suggestion of walking in the procession itself. The parade crowds churned past them, a whirlwind of color and cheers and thumping music, as the two stood on the sidewalk and watched them go. Joy beamed from every face that passed them; the very air buzzed with it and resonated somewhere in Marnie's ribcage. 

"Are Prides always like this?" she asked her aunt, a bespectacled woman with short, dark hair that looked like she never stopped running her fingers through it. The parade was so noisy Marnie had to repeat herself, yelling to be heard.

"Well, this is pretty special," Roz called back as she waved the little rainbow flag she'd been handed by a stranger in bright face paint. "But yeah, I'd say it's close."

[Sophie Tillman]

Sophie knew as well as anybody that marriage equality wasn't the end of the fight. Discrimination and violence still existed. There was so much work to be done, she knew that perfectly well. Technically, marriage equality wasn't even her fight, at least in Vermont; after the necessary legwork and with the help of an understanding psychiatrist instead of a transphobic one, here, Sophie was legally considered female, and could marry any time she wanted. But when the news broke Friday morning, even with that in the back of her mind, she couldn't stop herself from working with a bounce in her step and a smile on her face.

With the parade scheduled for Sunday, there was little time for the LGBT center volunteers to help prepare. All weekend Sophie threw herself into her work, designing and posting fliers by day, making signs to share at the parade well into the night, aided by the chronic insomnia she usually hated. Even as the bags under her eyes grew, Sophie's enthusiasm remained high.

On Sunday she arrived early with stacks of colorful signs to hand out to people who hadn't brought their own. Sophie's wide, round sunglasses hid the bags under her eyes, and her face and arms were slathered in sunscreen. At her side was her Labrador, Sandy, looking as festive as any marcher with a rainbow bandanna tied around his fluffy neck. She was ready to be here all day, if that's how long the celebration lasted.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean had received a telephone call from Ryan when the Supreme Court had made their ruling regarding marriage equality. His nephew had been excited, as excited as he’d been in 2011 when New York State had legalized marriage equality, and more excited than he had been when the Supreme Court a couple of years ago had ruled DOMA unconstitutional.

At the time of Ryan’s call, Sean had been having a conversation with Josh on the same topic. It could be a bit overwhelming to think about, marriage equality across the entire United States.

Not because Sean cared about marriage for himself, because he didn’t. He wasn’t one of the people who had dreamed of marriage as they made a life with their partners; the fact that he and Josh couldn’t marry when they had first been together had taught him how unnecessary marriage was to a relationship. That was a practical matter, not one of hippie identification. He didn’t consider his relationship with Josh superior to other people because he chose every morning to remain with the other man, as opposed to having to go through the courts to leave. As he had told his partner on his birthday a couple of years ago, he couldn’t imagine loving Josh more than he already did, and so, by simple rules of logic, marriage must be superfluous. The fact that an ex-Catholic could reach that conclusion while still young and Catholic said a lot about how much he loved Josh, both now and when they had lived together in the 1980s.

No, what he found overwhelming was the thought of how far they had come in a relatively short period of time. Stonewall had been forty-six years ago, the same summer that Sean had manifested his powers. Homosexuality had only been removed from the DSM forty-three years ago, and then removed entirely twenty-nine years ago. Thirty-years ago, the President of the United States had made jokes about gay men dying of AIDS during a press conference and had refused to offer funding for medical research. All of that had been within Sean’s lifetime, most of it during his adulthood.

And now people could marry their same-sex partners in Mississippi.

As he and Josh had discussed, there had been immediate backlash. A few states had refused to heed the Supreme Court’s directives, and at least two were considering whether they could simply dissolve the concept of civil marriage entirely. There had been an uptick in violence against LGBT people in the streets, particularly in the South. More LGBT youth had been expelled from their homes over the past couple of days than policy makers had expected. There remained work to do, such as passing a trans-inclusive and comprehensive federal ENDA. But today, people were celebrating for Pride.

Although Sean hadn’t attended a parade in a while, he came out for the Pride Parade this year. He didn’t march, but he stood along the parade route with a rainbow pin on one lapel, and his old pink triangle pin on the other. He smiled at the marchers, and he greeted all of the people he recognized as they came up to him, hugging anyone who initiated that.

[Mitchell Terrell]

Despite Mitchell generally having an aversion to large crowds of people, he had made an exception today. He knew that there was still a very long way to go before acceptance became the standard, but this was a massively important step up the mountain. The backlash against the ruling was deeply saddening to see but not at all unexpected, though the sheer number of people and states that had fully backed the decision had been such a promising sign for the future. It was why, despite his anxieties, Mitchell had made the effort to attend the Pride parade. Every step on the road to equality was worthy of support and a cause for celebration.

Mitchell obviously did not take part in the walk itself, and was quite content sat on a low wall nearby where he could watch the riot of noise and colour pass by. The warmth of the day and the closeness of the people was enough that he'd had to forsake his usual jacket, instead wearing a tee and just hoping against hope that no-one questioned the small burn scars on his forearms. Even though he didn't tend to wear jewellery beyond his wedding band and the occasional stone pendant if he needed it, Mitchell had made up a simple bracelet of tourmaline, the gemstone of the rainbow.

Sat on the low wall, Mitchell was gently swinging his left leg as he watched the people walking past a short distance away. Emma's leash was looped loosely around his hand, the Setter sat beside him with a rainbow stripe scarf around her neck, and Mitchell smiled and gave a small wave to a young girl he saw with a similarly attired Labrador. He then turned to his husband sat beside him, and gave Rob's hand a gentle squeeze. “Thank you for coming with me.”

[Dr. Robert Terrell]

Rob had easily agreed to going to the parade. Of course, he would have done just about anything Mitch had asked of him, so it had been an easy sell. Especially with the new ruling. Their marriage had pre-dated it, which made him happy to live in such a progressive state, but at least now the rest of the country had the same rights. Screw everyone that was speaking against it. They had the same rights as anyone else, and that was that. It was something that had taken him a long time to truly embrace, especially growing up around his grandfather, who was rather openly homophobic. That had been a long time ago, though, and he’d been lucky enough to have his parents as well as his sisters accept who he was. He was also lucky to have found Mitchell.

He was not so lucky when it came to his parade attire. In getting dressed that morning, he’d been reaching for one of his usual fitted t-shirts when Mitch had pulled out and presented him with a shirt his little sister had given him to at Christmas as a joke. It had been stuffed into the back of his closet and almost forgotten about until now. Try as he might have, he just couldn’t say no to Mitch. In the end, he’d sucked it up and thrown it on to appease him. He’d also tugged on a beaded bracelet he’d picked up years ago. It was subtle, but still pride themed.

He was proud of Mitch for being brave enough to forgo his jacket, though he was ready to snap if someone made any snide remarks about his scars. Thankfully, everyone’s attention was more on the road than anything else. It was easy to sit on the wall and relax a little. The weather was nice, and Rob was more than happy to have indulged Mitch in going. Emma had even surprised him by behaving herself at the end of her lead. Better yet, she hadn’t even attempted to inhale her scarf.

Glancing at Mitch, he smiled and squeezed his hand back. “You’re welcome. It’s a good day for it.” Lifting their hands, he gently kissed the back of Mitch’s before setting them back down again. “I love you.” A movement out of the corner of his eye made him sigh and stoop to remove Emma’s scarf from her mouth. “Give me that, you big lump.” The Setter, clearly pleased with the attention, quickly snatched it back, making a game of it. “... Who invited Emma, Mitch?”

[Lilly Love]

Live hated people and normally, she would have hid in her apartment all day to avoid the craziness of a parade. However, this was a very special parade. It wasn't just for some stupid holiday or other local occasion, this was a national celebration of monumental proportions. Finally, after years and years of fighting, marriage equality was a thing across all of America. While this decision didn't really directly affect Live, given she wasn't big on marriage and was heterosexual, she was still glad that finally the government had made this decision. She might hate people but she supported their rights.

The only problem was that the parade was in the middle of the day, on a very sunny day. When you were a shadow walker, this caused problems. Live wore long black pants, her black combat boots, a red long sleeve shirt, and a baseball cap with her hair down. Most everyone else was in crazy rainbow colors and wearing as little clothes as possible but Live didn't really own that much color nor could she be exposed to that much sun without getting sick.

She stood along the edges of the parade, under the shade of a building, watching the people go by. She had been handed a small flag which she waved now and then as people shouted and hollered in her direction. She didn't want to get that involved in this whole ordeal, but she wanted to witness it and be a part of it. After all, this was history in the making right here!

[Mitchell Terrell]

Mitchell had been lucky enough to arrive into the world very comfortable in his own skin. He’d become familiar with his sexuality at a young age and his parents had been fully supportive when he had come out to them. In fact, his mother had often joked that they had known long before he did; that he’d come into the world singing show-tunes. He knew full well, of course, that not everyone was so lucky. Rob had been a massive awakening to Mitchell in that respect. He just hoped that now, with the new ruling, more young people would feel accepted and know that they were not alone.

There was a part of Mitchell that felt a little bad for having made Rob wear that shirt, but it was mostly being drowned out by his amusement that it was actually being worn. He was also proud of Rob for being ‘brave’ enough to leave the house without looking quite as pristine and primped as he usually did. In truth Mitchell actually preferred this more laid-back look for his husband but he didn’t tend to voice that. He knew how much Rob’s fashion meant to him. He smiled warmly at this kiss to the back of his hand. “I love you too.” He gently let go of Rob’s hand, letting his fingers instead trail up and loosely knot into the fabric of Rob’s shirt. “And your instruction manual shirt.” He used the fabric to lightly pull Rob over, making his husband tilt to the side so Mitchell could place a soft kiss on his cheek.

Since the incident at the park where Emma had run away from him, Mitchell had been spending gradually more and more time out with the Setter to try to regain his confidence walking her in public. It had been going well, and today was most definitely a test of how well it was going. Even though she was being kept on her leash there was so many people and so many distractions around that Mitchell really was seeing it as a test of how well he could control her. Besides, it also meant that he wouldn’t be totally alone in a sea of people if Rob went off to speak to someone else. When Emma started attacking her scarf and trying to wrestle for it with Rob, Mitchell couldn’t help but laugh. “Hey, don’t look at me. She’s your dog. She’s only ‘our’ dog when she’s behaving.”

[Dr. Robert Terrell]

Rob had not been so lucky, sadly. While his parents had both been fairly open to the ideas of alternative lifestyles, his maternal grandfather had always been rather loud with his opinions. So much so that when Rob had started noticing that his attention drifted more towards boys, he’d swallowed it down and forced himself to ignore it. Oddly enough, Hammel had been a blessing in more than one way. With the distance between them, even though it was only a few states, it had been enough to help break out of the shell he had built. Granted, Mitchell had been a big part of that, but it had still been an achievement of sorts. He was lucky that his parents had been so good about it, and that they now loved Mitch like he was their own son. His sisters were the same, to the point that he was positive Lily actually liked Mitch more. Not that he cared. Really. He didn’t.

Yes, Rob liked to leave the house looking polished. It was a habit that, while present when he was a teenager, had only gotten stronger at university and medical school. In his adult life he could count the days on one hand that he left home looking less than pristine. This was one of them. Still, Mitchell’s amusement and happiness meant the world to him, so he could deal with it. Smiling at the comment about his shirt, he let Mitchell pull him and do exactly as it said. “If that’s what happens, I should wear this every day around you.” Just... not at work. No. He had enough giggly nurses around him as it was. He didn’t need to give them another reason to stare. Or giggle.

As Emma began to play growl tugging on the scarf, Rob turned slightly to look at Mitch. “Oh no. It was somewhere in our vows. Emma’s yours when she’s bad, like it or not.” Glancing back at the dog, he finally pulled the scarf from her mouth. Showing it to her, he shook it lightly. “This is to wear, not to eat, dog.” With that, he slid it back around her neck, making sure the longest part was laying behind her head. Despite twisting around to try, Emma couldn’t quite catch it. After a few failed tries, she gave up and instead moved to put her paws up on Mitch’s lap, licking his cheek with all the enthusiasm of a much younger dog. Rob just shook his head at her. “See? All yours.”