Greetings, fellow readers. By the time you’re reading this, the event will have likely passed, but tomorrow is Modesto Pride! I don’t live in Modesto but my good friend is part of a performance group that will be, well, performing at MoPride, Club Matisse. Which means I get to come along to my first Pride event. And I’m so excited!

Whether you love it, hate it, or have simply never been, Pride is and always has been a big event. Despite the caricatured scenes from shows like The L Word, I really don’t know what to expect from Pride. I would assume that each one is different with different things, just lots of rainbows everywhere and music and food. Either way, I’m excited, and I’ll write of my experience (so you can all laugh at me).

Since I have no experience with Pride, I’d like to write today less about the event and more on the emotion. Why do we call it pride, “out and proud”? I’ve been asked this a couple of times in the past, and the answer, I think, is simple. We, like many before us, spend a good deal of our lives fighting an unwanted but necessary uphill battle, one that other people may see, but don’t necessarily understand. We realize we’re different from the status quo, something that is generally frowned upon; which, mind you, I think is the funniest thing because literally everyone is different one way or another. We come out and admit that we’re different, which causes certain parties to overreact when it really should be as shocking a discovery as being told your friend or family member likes their eggs with ketchup instead of salt. Then, a good portion of us spend the rest of our lives fighting to justify that difference (“It just tastes better with ketchup, I’m sorry!”)

So why not get together every so often with people who share this preference (or maybe just don’t care and want to party)? It’s a common thing to get together with people that have a common interest and just celebrate that thing we love (KetchupedEggCon2015.) It’s becoming more and more common with every interest out there and with the just extraordinary size of the LGBTQIA+ community, it’s no wonder that Pride is such a big deal.

So go out, have fun, shake your rainbow tailfeathers (or any variant gradient!) And I might just see you at MoPride.