Helsinki Gay Pride

Last Saturday, 2.7.2011, was the long expected Helsinki Gay Pride parade. We went to Helsinki on the 9 am train with Ktiraam, Dino and Penpen, and when there, went to buy something to drink and eat and visited Fantasiapelit to buy some manga. Many people wished us a happy Pride, nobody could miss us going there since we were dressed so colourfully and carried so many rainbows with us. =D

We were early at the square (11 am), where the Parade would leave (1 pm), and started to paint with facepaint and decorate each other more. Dino's friend Envy finally found us. We got some lovely decorated rainbow hearts and balloons for free and I put my pink wings onto my back. It was already blazing hot so we drank a lot and put on huge amounts of sunscreen. (I don't know if I've told about this before, but I have a big big problem with sweating: because of the depression medication I take, so I was sweatting like in a sauna the whole time we were at the Pride. Yuhhhh!)

Painting Penpen's tattoo to suit the  Pride colours ;D

The tattoo is done. ^_^

Soon the boys; Jussi and Jari arrived too and we got to paint rainbows onto their faces too. And then the rest arrived: Shuji, Meablie, Nikomon, Cilla & Nita. So, we were ready. But the Parade still wouldn't leave in an hour, so we hung around, danced, took photos, chatted, chased different balloons, admired people and laughed together. It was really fun despite the heat. We were interviewed and taken photos of and everyone was having loads of fun.

The boys with their new paints. =D

Dada-dada-dada-dada-Batmaaaan!

A beautiful Pride Bride. ^__^

The Helsinki-Gay-Theater people. ^_^

Pride!

With loads and loads and loads of people! =D

Then it was 1 pm and the first of the Parade people started moving. We went behind a truck we were adviced to go to and then the long wait started. Fortunately they played really good music that was uplifting and entertaining. Our special favourite was a remix with someone saying the home-and-religion-secretary's name (Päivi Räsänen) in the song. (She is VERY anti-gay-rights and extremely religious and old fashioned. And is often saying really horrible things about people who are not either religious or straight.) Everyone burst out laughing and yelling and clapping.

PEOPLE!

And dancing. ^_^

And balloons.^_^

And Pride trucks! ^_^

And pink wings! ^_^

And Päivä Räsänen! XD

It all would have been wonderful, but we were really getting tired in the heat and sun, there was no shadow to go to and our water bottles were almost empty. After 30 more minutes of waiting that we would finally move, we decided to skip a little and go forward two trucks and march with people they were letting go now. And so we marched with the left-wing people. XD They had really fun slogans that we yelled with them and the mood went up again. The whole Parade was very political this year, because the  issue about gay rights, -marriage and -adoption has been up a lot during the year and the last election this winter.
(I could go on with this for quite a while because I've been interested of politics a lot lately, but this is not about that, so let's not.=P)

And the march is on. =D

Horse-police! =D

Mannerheimintie, the main street of Helsinki! =D

The route of the Parade was different from the previous years, possibly because we were marching through the biggest and widest streets of Helsinki to avoid any possible attacks. There was no way to hide from the huge amount of police at the wide streets and everything was peaceful and lovely. There were about 10-times more police than in the previous Parade, they were really taking the security seriously, which of course all of us appreciated.
(Last year there was an attack against the parade with smoke- and tear-gas and a lot of people got injured =(  ).

Nearing the park, and the mood goes UP! :D

Happiness (and me ^^).

We were laughing and singing and yelling and clapping and marching on until we turned to a completely different direction from usual and realized that this year the park-party would be in a different place. And when we realized the place was Kaisaniemi park, we all got really excited, it's a lovely park with a lot of trees and shades and a lot of space for everyone. =)

A beautiful girl with a great sign! =D

The Kaisaniemi park, yayyyy! =D

Finally we were there at the park and almost fell to the ground, under the trees. It was wonderful to sit at the shade after 3 hours of the blazing sunshine. All of us were out of water and that was our next assignment. But we soon discovered that although they had promised a water source, the well was locked and nobody could get it open. So we had to send a few of us to the store to buy water. Nikomon and Shuji volunteered and bought two 5 liter canisters which we all shared. ^_^

The stands were decorated wonderfully! ^_^

The Pride Stage! =D

Me and my new Pride flag! ^_^ 

And so we went browsing the stands. We found a lot of free pins, stickers, magazines and flyers, condoms, lubricants and so on, plus I bought a few pins and a huuuge Pride flag that I've been wanting for years already (Yay, I finally found it!). We were walking around when an online friend of mine was suddenly there. We chatted with her for a while, but I was so out of it because of the heat that I babbled really weird stuff. So we decided it was time to go back to the shade. XD
After that, time went really fast. We sat at the shade, ate, drank, talked, rested, chilled, laughed... until it was time to go again. We went to eat to McDonalds before going back home on a train and were home at 8 pm.

Gay Pride art at the Helsinki railway station. ^_^

And the other side. =D

A few days later we found out there were 15 000 people marching at the Gay Pride Parade, so no wonder we had to wait a while before we could march! WOW, last year there were 5000 people and at the first pride I took part in, 4 years ago, there were only 1400 people. This is awesome! A lot of people wanted to show that they want equality, same rights for everyone.

And as the theme of the year said: we were marching for love. 

♥