It looks simple, but it has a story to it. it's from almost two decades ago. I was at the Vancouver pride parade with my mother, my sister and my sister's fiancé (now wife). There were two young women in front of us and, as the parade went by, the two slowly, organically, entwined with each other.
It struck me that THIS was the true purpose of pride. For these two, their entwining wasn't a political action. It wasn't an action of defiance. It was a private action in a public place. It had no meaning, other than as an act of affection. They lived in a world where two women in love was just NORMAL.
I asked them if I could take their picture. "Sure!" they replied, "But ... WHY?"
"Because you had to ask the question." I answered.
Now, to be sure, there is still a fight. There are countries where loving somebody of the same gender can get you jailed or even executed, and the USA seems to be backsliding. But, in the years since the first pride parade, there are so many places where it's gone from a protest, to a parade, to an event, to a celebration.
There are small cities having their first pride parade this year and, in many places, the people who have to hide their thoughts about pride are the people who dislike it. Groups that once called for the beating of LGBTQ+ people now chafe at the thought of being excluded from the local pride parade.
The struggle continues, but we sometimes need to just revel in the many victories of recent history.
I've taken hundreds of 'pride' pictures in the years since this one, but this simple picture still touches my emotions like no other.
