[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Today's post, this year's "Seattle Pride" post, is mostly copied and pasted from my requisite photo digest email sent out to a distribution list last night ... I won't be including this typical "author's note" at the start of such posts going forward as it becomes basically standard a lot of the time. The difference here is that the bits about the Capitol Hill Pride Festival are omitted here, because I already posted about that yesterday morning, and my blog post includes a lot more detail about the Taking B(l)ack Pride controversy than my email did. I don't see the need to be redundant about that here.]

To say Seattle Pride this year was a mixed bag would be an understatement. Last year, all Pride events were done virtually, everything exclusively online, with stay-home orders still very much in effect. This year, restrictions are far less severe than they were a year ago, and plenty of people are out and about and not staying in their homes. Unfortunately, huge, crowded public events are still not allowed, so for the second year in a row, there was no in-person Pride Parade on Sunday as is tradition on the last Sunday of June.

This has resulted in a curious effect on Pride this year, where, even though there was no Parade either this year or last year, last year it was still far easier to feel connected to Pride—because everyone who participated in it did so from home. Not so this year, and even my own weekend was filled with several things not directly related to Pride.

Case in point: the Merchandising Department party at work, on the patio of our office, our first in-person social event since 2019. Friday of Pride Weekend is normally Seattle Trans Pride, which last year occurred entirely online like all other events, but this year was simply indefinitely postponed, with the hope of doing an in-person event later in the year. The thing is, with this and all other Pride events that organizers are hoping to do this year in-person but just delayed, it's still not during what is traditionally Pride Weekend, and I fear it won't get a lot of participation either way as a result.

I can say this, though: PCC hung the rainbow Pride Flag at the front desk for Pride Month, quite blatantly visible when I was there on Friday. It's easy for some, perhaps, to think this is just expected, something they do by default. I can tell you that, personally, I still really appreciate it. My only suggestion might be for them to upgrade it to the "Progress Flag," which incorporates the Black and Brown stripes for people of color, and the blue, pink and white stripes of the Trans Pride flag. This is increasingly the default Pride flag being used, and I am all for it.

I didn't spent nearly as much time with Seattle Pride's virtual events this year as I did last year, but I did spend some time with it. This was one of the first screenshots I took, of many, while watching on my computer.

The "mainstage" video feed was very funky and glitchy on Saturday, and the consensus in the chat was that it may have had to do with the heat. The mainstage feed yesterday was much better.

I did still walk through Bobby Morris Playfield at Cal Anderson Park on Sunday as I just happened to be walking by, with in-person events for Capitol Hill pride still ostensibly going on, to see if there was anything more that might be worth taking pictures of (and there was very little there on that front). I did find this guy: a blow-up unicorn costume guy waving a Progress Flag in the bed of a pickup truck as part of a booth for . . . Honda Motor Company.

When I was back online for virtual events on Sunday, I found a video "introduction" to Seattle Pride's virtual events which featured a bunch of drone shots of local rainbows, clearly taken in years past—in this case, of a couple of the rainbow crosswalks on Capitol Hill, which I have always loved.

And in this case: a rainbow flag hanging over Bobby Morris Playfield at Cal Anderson Park. Just the fact that no Pride booths are visible here indicates that the shot was taken last year or a year previous.

And in this case: Starbucks headquarters, the rainbow flag flying atop it with the Seattle skyline in the background.

This one I did not put in the "travelogue" email—it surely qualifies as TMI: the place where I spent about three and a half hours on Pride Sunday afternoon. It's the bathhouse I frequent, and was my first time back since January 2020. I really missed it, to be honest. What better day for my return than on Pride Sunday? (When for the second year in a row there was no parade anyway.) My experiences there and how great they are really vary, kind of like gambling in Las Vegas: sometimes it's great; sometimes it's a dud; sometimes it's . . . fine. This time it was fine. Also if you don't quite know what I'm talking about here, then, well . . . look it up at your own risk.

I've been coming here since 2010. This is the first time I ever took a picture of it.

Passing by Bobby Morris Playfield again later in the afternoon on Pride Sunday (on my way back from Steamworks), this time there actually was someone performing onstage—a singer who was really quite good. Her audience, however, was all of three young women standing in the playfield grass, one of them raising a hand to the sky in response to the song, as if she were at church.

The very last virtual "Mainstage" performer on Pride Sunday as part of official Seattle Pride events online, a young woman called Sassy Black. Not only was she very good, but I loved her virtual background.

After virtual events ended on Sunday, I went up to the roof of my building to brave the intense heat for just a few more minutes and get the requisite shot of the Pride Flag flying from atop the Space Needle through my binoculars—which is barely visible now that all these newly constructed high-rises are in the way. (Compare this shot to last year's, when I could still see most of the Space Needle from up there. You can see they had already upgraded to the Progress Flag on the Space Needle in 2020, which meant the drone shots were taken some year prior to that.)

And just for shits and giggles, here's a wider shot of that view, which previously featured the Space Needle, now almost fully obscured by new buildings. I am usually all for new high-rises, except the Seattle skyline, particularly at its north end, is becoming quite disappointingly monotonous. Can we get even some moderately interesting architectural designs, please?

Okay, so this is hard to see, but . . . we still have masks recommended in common areas of my condo building, so I wore the rainbow one Tracy gave me for my birthday up to the roof, and discovered that when the sun hits it, it creates a bit of a disco ball effect on the wall. It was much easier to see in person, but if you look closely here you can see the bits of light being reflected on the wall.

And last but not least! Later Sunday evening, just before watching a movie together while connected over FaceTime, my friends Gabriel and Lea posed for me with their Pride flags—both rainbow and Trans Pride colors. Gabriel has a trans daughter and I went to Trans Pride with them most years between 2015 and 2019. We can only hope that all these events will be much closer to back to normal again by 2022.

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