Come out come out…

I came out today to my two closest straight friends and they took it in their stride and of course as is so often the case, they already knew.

So yeah, we were talking about something or other and one of them happened to mentioned someone who looked gay (they did so in a lighthearted way) and I could feel that familiar terrifying yet exhilirating feeling come up and before I knew it I had told them.

They were like “okay” then they carried on as they had done before, no break in the conversation and I’ve never known that.  It didn’t make the slightest bit of difference to anything.  It was lovely actually.

Pride…

Today, I ventured out to my first Pride event.  Oxford Pride.

It was a wet and dreary day and I think this reflected on the amount of people who turned up.  Still, it was well worth going if only to see a man wearing make-up and wearing white rugby socks handing out Disney stickers to people.

There were the obligatory safe sex stalls, one from Amnesty International, loads selling rainbow-themed goods, a t-shirt stall (with among others,  a t-shirt which read Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow lol), a student union one and various other things besides.

There was food and drink, an ice cream van, a fairground and a stage with singers and performers.  I ran into 3 people I knew and I saw Mazz from mazzimage.  I told Teresa who I’d seen and her and Mazz chatted for a while but word about PPP must have gotten around because Mazz already knew about it, which was good.

I’d gone to meet friends.  Teresa & Helen run a social networking site called Pretty Pink Pearl and they were there to drum up some new business, handing out cards and just basically getting their names about and making themselves known.

I introduced them to JW, the Queen Mother of Reading and he chatted with them for a while basically outlining what he could do for them.  JW’s a great bloke, he’s probably the most well known face on the local gay scene and long may he continue to be so.

I left when T & H did, said goodbye where they’d parked their car and made my way back to the railway station, the train I needed came a couple of minutes later and was I back indoors here within the hour.  I’m glad I went.  It was a good day.