Welcome to Kristen’s Gentrification Defying Summer Vacation log! This summer, well, until about the middle of August, I will be taking a break from the podcast and livestreams starting tomorrow, when my season finale podcast finally posts after technical difficulties. This week, some fun at Capital Pride in the midst of another week of bad news.
Yes, it’s true. I really did ride a CaBi with Les and her DDOT colleagues in the Capital Pride Parade. And yes, I wore the red shirt, which I was tickled that also lined up with the call to wear red in solidarity with the White House protest for Palestine. And yes, I also nearly passed out in Thomas Circle, hopped in the DDOT truck, and came to enough to wave my Progress Pride fan at the folks further down 14th Street NW and on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
Watch highlights from the parade here.
And today not only did I get to pick up some of the better merch from the Pride festival, I got to catch up with a lovely old friend and colleague, Wanona Satcher as her company Mahkers Studio’s tiny home was highlighted in the HUD Innovative Housing Showcase. Here’s me on the way to do all of that. I forgot to get a picture at the Mall.
And between all of that Saturday night after we rested from the parade, we walked down to Pride on the Pier, which while nice to have a Pride party in our front yard, the lack of Progress Pride Flags on the pier and any Pride flags on the main Wharf promenade was disturbing and serves as yet another reason, of many, that folks are staying away from the bigger Pride festivities as those festival only want to party and not want to aid in advancing the wellbeing of all queer people, not just the wealthiest and most connected to state power.
What I am most excited about is that everything that was done, from the White House Red Line, to the Dyke March, to the regular Capital Pride march, went smoothly. Yes, some folks were booed. And yes, those were the preachers and the Zionists. But unlike in many places globally, we got to practice pleasure activism as much as direct activism for just one day, without life-altering violence. Now, I get to spend my summer reading and cuddling with the best plushy friends a person could ask for.
Until next time,
Kristen