The house is dusty. The sheets need to be washed. Visitors are coming and activities need to be
planned.
But first: a PARADE.
Today (March 31) is International Transgender Day of Visibility. Some of our neighbors tried to go into DC yesterday to celebrate at a big event, but traffic was horrendous due to another (BIGGER) event – the cherry blossoms are blooming. The family tried to get into town, but traffic was so bad they eventually gave up. I read a post about it on Facebook and said, “Hey, come march past our house, we will cheer for you!”. They agreed, and with that, an idea was ready to turn into a PARADE.
The only problem was, it
was, the evening before… There was no way
this could actually become an “event”, but I sort of didn’t want it to be just
me and my partner holding signs cheering as the neighbors marched by with their
trans pride flags…
I put a post in the
neighborhood Facebook page with the meeting spot and the time (and the image above). People “liked” it, but would they come?? We stopped to talk to some new neighbors that
we had met last week when their child had a lemonade stand. I wanted to ask them to come and to have
their kid sell lemonade (win/win, right?).
Only, as we walked up to the
door, I got scared. What if the topic of
trans pride was against their beliefs? Maybe
I would offend them or anger them… But I
thought, “Susan, imagine what the parents of trans kids must feel like! They are faced with fighting for equal rights
for their child every single day! Surely
you can risk offending one household of neighbors”. I was glad we talked with them. They were very supportive and I could tell
that the topics of equality and pride not only interested them but probably hit
close to home.
We went to the store and
stocked up on appropriate “parade” snacks – cupcakes and cookies. I picked out special big ones for the marchers
😊 . I wasn’t sure how many to get, but I figure
if we ran out, we ran out, and if we were left with a lot, well then we would
just “have” to eat them!
 |
| Happy cookies! |
 |
| Fancy cupcakes for the marchers - unicorns and butterflies |
 |
| Colorful small cupcakes for the "cheerers" |
But they came! Neighbors came! The sun was shining and smiles were big. And as the marchers (4 of them) appeared,
their big trans flag blew in the wind and it looked beautiful!! They handed out small
trans flags to all of us, which we waved proudly to cars passing by and stopped
at the stop light. And passing cars honked
– not the honk of “the light is green, go!” but the honk of “I see you – I support
you. Equality is possible, let’s fight
together”. Even a fire truck and a bus
honked supportively!
 |
| Happy Trans Day of VISIBILITY! |
 |
| Less Hate, More Hugs |
In the end I think there
were 15 of us gathered on the busy corner.
We ate cupcakes and cookies. A
couple of people shredded some things in the “shred your worries here”
project. Kids drew posters (isn’t this
one terrific)?
 |
| Perfect message |
But mostly, we just celebrated. Celebrated sunshine and kindness and trans
people and the spirit of equality and neighborhood.
 |
| You can't see it from this angle, but this marcher even has a trans CAPE!! |
 |
| Ahhh, there is the awesome cape! |
Happy International Transgender Day of
Visibility. May acceptance, support, and
EQUALITY soon be second nature in our country.
 |
| A small flag with a BIG message |
Comments