On Sunday I went on an expedition that I thought would be a little more eye-opening than it was. At least, it wasn't eye-opening in the way I expected it to be.
Late Sunday afternoon as the all-day St. Louis clouds were finally clearing - just as my father and I were getting home from our damp motorcyle ride - I cleaned up and drove over to my best friend's house. She quickly hopped in my car and we were off to Tower Grove Park. We were headed to what we thought would be a pretty culturally shocking experience, though we had braced ourselves for it. We were headed to PrideFest. Specifically, the 29th Annual St. Louis PrideFest.
We thought PrideFest would be interesting because, primarily, we are both heterosexual. I entered the park with the idea, and maybe the hope, that there would be many other straight people there, and that these individuals would be wearing some sort of stickers or hats or sandwich boards which read, "Hey! I'm straight too! Let's be out-of-place together!" No such luck. But I didn't feel uncomfortable for a second while I was there for almost two hours. My best friend and I wandered around the many tents, admiring the rainbow decorations, speculating about all the churches with little booths set up, and sometimes blushing at some of the raunchy merchandise being sold.
Then, at 20 minutes past 6:00 PM, we settled down by the stage for the reason we were there - a free concert given by Gregory Douglass, an openly gay singer/songwriter from Burlington, Vermont who I happen to adore. My best friend was lukewarm but she was a trooper for enduring my girlish excitement during the whole thing. (She was a double tropper for enduring a drag queen's lip syncing of a song called "Push the Button" which, you guessed it, is NOT about operating an elevator.)
Long story short, I had a great time. PrideFest had an unbelievable air of freedom and permissibility and progress. Gregory Douglass's performance was spectacular. A few highlights were his performance of "Dry" with its stinging guitar riffs and intense lyrics as well as his a cappella version of Alicia Keys' "No One," which I was fortunate enough to capture on video.
When I left I was glad that there are people like Gregory Douglass who just love to sing and play and jam and I was glad I am one of the people who love to watch that happen.
Check him out!
http://www.gregorydouglass.com/
www.myspace.com/gregorydouglass
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