Columbus Pride Festival 2024

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​Columbus Pride Festival 2024

     This past Friday evening Tom and I headed to Goodale Park,  

...a beautiful and serene patch of green in the downtown Columbus, Ohio neighborhood known as the Short North,

...for this year's Stonewall Columbus Pride festival.

    Now, we'd only ever been to a Columbus Pride fest once before, back in pre-COVID 2019 when the event was held in the heart of downtown along the Scioto River and was a vast, colorful, diverse and joyful community celebration,

...as was this year's in the park.

      But if asked to describe the overarching vibe of the festival on this Friday night, I would say it was...nice. It was a nice stroll in the park along with all the other folks out enjoying this lovely June evening while showing solidarity for a just cause:
      Young folks,

...old folks,

...and all the folks in between,

...including fur folks,

...some decked out for the occasion, and some making the scene in their everyday threads.

       The paths were lined with merchants offering their wares,

...as well as public service tables.

      There were corporations there to show support for the LGBTQ community.

​...and there was lots of free swag being given away.

      We passed one young lady holding a bowl of fancy-looking condoms who asked me if I knew anyone who could use one.

      I told her thank you, but I was afraid that everybody in my crowd was post-condom.
      There was an array of food stands, mostly of the State Fair variety,​      

...and a meadow with lots of picnic tables and chairs.

      At one point early in the evening the clouds rolled in and we were hit with a downpour,

...during which Tom and I took shelter under a overhang on the rec center building.

      But the shower was over in a few minutes and in no way dampened the spirit of the festivities,

...which was friendly, harmonious,

...and peaceful.

       Some people wore flags representing different groups within the LBGTQ community,

...some of which I didn't know the significance. I asked these three friendly youngsters what their flags represented, though I knew the one in the middle was a trans flag,

...as, in fact, I have that one hanging on my front porch,

...but I didn't know what the other two were. They explained to me that the one on the left was the lesbian flag and the one the right represented bisexuals.
​      And it occurred to me as we spent this lovely evening in lovely Goodale Park that, though the world is still far from the place it should be and too many people still navigate life guided by ignorance, small-mindedness, intolerance, and unkindness that cloaks itself in the ugly rags of self-righteousness, still how much better it is to be living in this time and place than it once was.