'It wasn’t until eight to 10 far-right extremists stormed the event that I realized what LGBTQ+ Pride is truly about.'
I’ll admit that before it happened, I never felt like LGBTQ+ Pride was for me. Growing up in San Francisco, I quickly lost my zest for the roaring, drunken parties and corporate floats that now characterize Pride month. To me, the pageant rhetoric commemorating Pride’s
Another shouted: “So, who brought the tranny?” over a stunned silence. The librarians stood. Security entered. The children panicked at the sudden conflict. My heart hammered in my ears.At that moment, I realized no buffer or legislation protected us from these angry men. We were utterly defenseless, because this was a children’s event and reading books to kids in a library should not require self-defense.
Boarded up in a safe room, my freeze response didn’t abate. I sat in a folding chair with my back pressed to a cubicle wall, taking sharp, quivering breaths. I stared off into a flier on the staff refrigerator, scrambling to wrap my head around what had just happened. Some time later, the librarians informed me that the sheriff had arrived to disperse the extremists, but that they continued to flank the exits, yelling into megaphones, waiting. The librarians joined me in the back room.
My partner drove nearly an hour from San Francisco to bring me makeup wipes and “boy” clothes. I wiped off all of my makeup and stuffed my dress, wig, and accessories into a garbage bag. The call lasted 12 minutes—less than half the time it took me to complete my shortest interview, a 25-minute sit-down with ABC. I found this deeply troubling, as this man was the one responsible for gathering evidence and conducting a thorough investigation. His department was responsible for bringing these extremists to justice.
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