From London with Pride

From London with Pride By: Aditi L I’d been to Pride before- Barcelona Pride, Tel Aviv Pride, DC Pride- but nothing could prepare me for the sheer mass of numbers at London Pride. London has a lot of people, and on July 3rd, it seemed like every single one of London’s residents was gay. Many of my friends were marching in the parade, with various student, political, and religious groups- so I just watched them from the sidelines of Trafalgar Square, as a gigantic billboard flashed the words “GAY,” “LESBIAN,” “BISEXUAL,” and “TRANS”-- why this giant billboard wasn’t broadcasting the parade or the concert, I don’t know. 2pm: Trafalgar Square had thousands upon thousands, dressed in barely nothing, wearing buttons, and dancing the day away. The fountains were dirty within the first few hours, as drunk queers swam in their spilt alcohol. The party started in Trafalgar Square but by the early afternoon, it pretty much covered all of central London. The amount of fairy wings within Zone 1 of London was astonishing and evoked discussions of “what if the whole world was gay? What would that be like?” The squares and parks sprinkled throughout central London were PACKED. When my friend Chloe found my group in Soho Square, I was less excited about seeing her than I was SHOCKED that anyone could find anyone in the mess, where directions like “I’m to the left of the person wearing a rainbow flag, the right of the naked man, and in front of the sign that says ‘God loves fags’” could describe every space within a 2 mile radius. 4pm: Soho looked like a trash yard. As I was rushing off, late to a birthday party, I had to navigate my way around collapsed drunken gays and broken beer bottles EVERYWHERE. 9pm: A rooftop party in Soho was the perfect place to start the night- safely away from the potentially dangerous insanity, but overlooking everything so we didn’t miss out on the naked races and gay chants. The London Eye (ferris wheel) was illuminated with rainbow lights that fell on the Thames River- and for that one night, standing on the rooftop overlooking the city, it seemed like everything was gay as far as the eye could see. 12:30am: We left the party to start club hopping, only to realize that everyone else had started this process several hours earlier and the line was a lifetime long. Pride had several official parties sprinkled throughout the city from Camden to Vauxhall, but we decided to stay in the center for convenience and cheapness. The end of the night brought us to Ku Bar where 1am very quickly became 5am and the night ended with my friend Bridie pointing out how everyone was currently hooking up with someone confusing- “So, he’s gay and she’s a lesbian. I don’t know why they’re kissing. He’s straight and she’s in a relationship with a woman, I don’t know why they’re kissing. He thinks he’s straight but he’s not, so I know exactly why they’re kissing.” After a falafel sandwich, we all parted ways to travel to opposite ends of London, feeling partied out and Proud.