During this past weekend, I had remained silent for an entire hour while being amongst people in the open. It was not particularly hard to do, however, I do not find it to be worthy of writing about seeing as, although, it had been something that I have never done before, it did not offer anything exciting to write about. Journalism does include the writing of mundane things and things that journalists might not feel passionate about, but when thinking about it, I realised that I would love to write something deep, meaningful and something that I do feel passionate about and would like to share that experience.
I am currently in my first year of studying at a tertiary level and during the societies evening that was held during the beginning of the year, I stopped at the OUTRhodes table, listened to what they had to say and I signed up. I can remember the feeling of signing up – it was an exhilarated and liberated feeling. The feeling one gets when one is proud of something they have done, perhaps I felt that I was being brave or it might have been the feeling of being able to breath of being apart of something, strangely signing up resulted in a sort of feeling. It is obvious that homophobia does occur on campus especially noted when the society has an event seeing as the posters get ripped off of the walls by fellow students and sometimes in passing one can hear conversations between fellow students pertaining their animosity towards LGBTI students.
In the beginning of the second term OUTRhodes members were able to attend The Pink Loerie festival in Knysna. I had heard of Pink Loerie festival and I had always wanted to go. The festival happens every year, usually during a long weekend and it is an LGBTI pride weekend. I signed up, paid the fee and I became strangely excited about my big gay weekend. One of my friends, who is gay, decided to go with me and together we counted down the days, anticipating that weekend. The Pink Loerie festival had been my first pride festival, in a metaphorical sense, I broke my pride festival virginity, and I now know that it was my first, but definitely not my last pride festival.
I met my friend, bags in hand, at the transport department and we were met with fellow members. During our first five minutes on the bus, we met two our now best friends, one of which, now happens to be my girlfriend – incidentally we started dating during this past weekend, so could I say that I started my first relationship during my college career?
The weekend was filled with different events that included, the Mr and Ms Mardi Grass competition. We had three members partaking in these two events. There was the pride march through Knysna. The pride march after party and several parties that happened during the weekend at Girlz Planet and Zanzibar. It also included several other events such as tattoo art and art exhibitions and so forth. It was the first time that I was able to be free, to talk about issues surrounding sexuality, of my own feelings during the weekend without worrying what people would do or say because no one would react badly during that weekend. I am lesbian and I loved the fact that I was able to say, “wow, that girl is so hot” and to have other women agree or have them themselves talk about other women. I was able to be myself, in public, for the first time in my life and I will never forget the feeling. I had established wonderful friendships during that weekend and enjoyed wonderful evenings out (literally and figuratively). There is no greater feeling than having a weight lifted from your shoulders and that is exactly how I felt, there was no need to bottle any emotions up within yourself. After that weekend I had a new found courage and I was able to be more open about my sexuality on campus. I do think that having that experience for the first time had enabled me to feel that I was apart of something bigger than myself, but more importantly, that I was not alone and that I should not be ashamed of being who I am. One thing is for sure, I am ready to have my second Pink Loerie experience.
I am currently in my first year of studying at a tertiary level and during the societies evening that was held during the beginning of the year, I stopped at the OUTRhodes table, listened to what they had to say and I signed up. I can remember the feeling of signing up – it was an exhilarated and liberated feeling. The feeling one gets when one is proud of something they have done, perhaps I felt that I was being brave or it might have been the feeling of being able to breath of being apart of something, strangely signing up resulted in a sort of feeling. It is obvious that homophobia does occur on campus especially noted when the society has an event seeing as the posters get ripped off of the walls by fellow students and sometimes in passing one can hear conversations between fellow students pertaining their animosity towards LGBTI students.
In the beginning of the second term OUTRhodes members were able to attend The Pink Loerie festival in Knysna. I had heard of Pink Loerie festival and I had always wanted to go. The festival happens every year, usually during a long weekend and it is an LGBTI pride weekend. I signed up, paid the fee and I became strangely excited about my big gay weekend. One of my friends, who is gay, decided to go with me and together we counted down the days, anticipating that weekend. The Pink Loerie festival had been my first pride festival, in a metaphorical sense, I broke my pride festival virginity, and I now know that it was my first, but definitely not my last pride festival.
I met my friend, bags in hand, at the transport department and we were met with fellow members. During our first five minutes on the bus, we met two our now best friends, one of which, now happens to be my girlfriend – incidentally we started dating during this past weekend, so could I say that I started my first relationship during my college career?
The weekend was filled with different events that included, the Mr and Ms Mardi Grass competition. We had three members partaking in these two events. There was the pride march through Knysna. The pride march after party and several parties that happened during the weekend at Girlz Planet and Zanzibar. It also included several other events such as tattoo art and art exhibitions and so forth. It was the first time that I was able to be free, to talk about issues surrounding sexuality, of my own feelings during the weekend without worrying what people would do or say because no one would react badly during that weekend. I am lesbian and I loved the fact that I was able to say, “wow, that girl is so hot” and to have other women agree or have them themselves talk about other women. I was able to be myself, in public, for the first time in my life and I will never forget the feeling. I had established wonderful friendships during that weekend and enjoyed wonderful evenings out (literally and figuratively). There is no greater feeling than having a weight lifted from your shoulders and that is exactly how I felt, there was no need to bottle any emotions up within yourself. After that weekend I had a new found courage and I was able to be more open about my sexuality on campus. I do think that having that experience for the first time had enabled me to feel that I was apart of something bigger than myself, but more importantly, that I was not alone and that I should not be ashamed of being who I am. One thing is for sure, I am ready to have my second Pink Loerie experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment