Saturday: Lima Gay Pride, Renzo's bday

On Saturday I woke up early for gay pride! I still had to get my giant banner printed, so I arrived at work early, helped sort out the disguises and costumes for the rest of the Inppares employees, and then headed out with Manuel (Enrique's twin) and a guy I don't know. We went to a small, indistinct store on a busy street that apparently Inppares had used for printing everything because they had examples of Inppares's previous buttons, posters, and banners hanging up. It took forever to print the posters and the woman designing them didn't seem to know how to use a computer. While they were printing, Manuel and I went to eat because I was starving.

Manuel showed me a nice, cheap restaurant. I ate papas a la huancaina for the first time, potatoes in a special egg sauce, and sadly I did not like it very much. :( Everyone here loves it, so they all suggested that it was prepared poorly. I will give it another try in a different restaurant later. I also ate fried chicken, which is not breaded here and is a lot better than American fried chicken.

This is the front of the parade line-up where we waited. From this huge bus, the female mayor of Lima cut the rainbow ribbon to start the parade. :D She gave a speech about how everyone should have the same rights and freedom from violence. Hell yeah.

They were a lot of pretty Peruvian drag queens at Pride, so I got my picture taken with several.

Some of the great posters on the floats. "I support a law for equality of lesbians, gays, trans people and bisexuals."

Amnesty International was there, with a  lot of non-Peruvians.

Their signs say "Demand dignity."

This organization is for parents of LGBTQ kids, and the sign says that they want their LGBTQ children to have the same rights as their straight children.

These drag queens were dressed like indigenous women. :D They danced around in the traditional Andean style with people playing traditional folk music.

Lots of drag pride. :D

I really loved this woman's hat! So Peruvian and so full of pride.

The Inppares team was dressed up like the Peruvian military and we had t-shirts that said, "Squadron Equally Different" in Spanish, with a rainbow flag and a Peruvian flag. I freakin love these tshirts (or polos, as they say in Peru) because not only is the design cool, but the fabric is insanely comfortable, made from Peruvian cotton.

Andre and me with his really gay flag. :) I wore a fish hat because it made me laugh so much. It's eating my head.

This bus is pretty funny. It says "Avenida Cabritud" which is basically "Faggotry Avenue." They also have Diversity Street and various other cute phrases.

Do you have any idea how cool it is to select (almost at random) a reproductive health clinic in Lima, Peru, read about them and see they do things you like, realize they are going to accept your internship request without many questions, and then arrive and find out they are doing exactly what you would do if you had a team of professionals, a ton of money, and lots of time? That's what this picture reminds me of. I love this place.

Throughout the march, I waved at everyone until my hand hurt. We only got two middle-fingers from hateful people, a few negative headshakes, tons of photos taken of us, and lots of people reading my sign. See the end for what it said and what it means. Lots of people waved at me and cheered, honking their horns, laughing because I had a fish on my head or because of all the men dressed as women. The thing was, there were a lot of different kinds of people in this march. For example, this picture has a family of young blonde kids. 

This animal rights group was cool: their sign says "Against all kinds of discrimination, racism= specism= sexism=homophobia".

After the march, there was a big concert with lots of drag queens and as-gay-as-possible presenters and songs. One of them was singing something like, "Why do you care what I do with my conchita (vagina)?" in a cutesy voice and everyone was laughing. Occasionally condoms and polos were tossed into the crowd.

While this was going on, I raced to a nearby street shop to buy some permanent markers for my project. We had neglected to get them before, but everything worked out all right (as a lot of things have tended to do here, interestingly enough). I shelled out a fair amount ( 15 soles, aka the same price I paid for a bus ticket to Ica, aka $4.50 or so) for 6 or 7 pretty markers in different colors, then ran back to the park where the marchers were collected, watching the concert and milling around admiring other people's signs and costumes.

I opened up the banner I had been carrying and started yelling to everyone to come express themselves against hate crimes, share their experiences with homophobia, and write what they wanted the government to do about hate crimes. Juan Pedro helped me holler. The sign says, "Queremos vivir en paz, ni un crimen de odio mas" which means "We want to live in peace, not even one more hate crime!" In Spanish, it rhymes. :D MY IDEA.

Lots of diverse people signed my banner!! 

The finished product. I was so proud, and still am. Click for the larger version. The next day at work, I typed up four pages of all the messages written on the banner. Some of them are very inspiring. About 20 people wrote "No a la homofobia!" and "Somos diversos!" But several wrote stories from their personal life, one wrote, "I could be your son, don't hate me." and still others wrote about how proud they were, how they love themselves, and how they will be free whether you like it or not. Peru is freakin awesome.

Me with two gay men dressed in outfits from Iquitos (the jungle in the north), and they said they were from Iquitos so I believe them.

And finally, me with some really fierce drag queens. Awesome! 

After that, I helped Victor take the banners and disguises and supplies back to Inppares and trudged home, exhausted but so happy. How many people get to say that their job includes marching in a gay pride in a homophobic country? 

I shouldn't say that Peru is necessarily homophobic, because they didn't choose to be that way. It was just the default brought by Catholicism, and I could see it in hundreds of Peruvians' eyes as we marched by: they are very curious to know more about gay people and why they are so stigmatized. That gave me so much hope. All they need is more information and some more exposure to the idea that gay people aren't out to get them, aren't sick in the head, and are generally just regular people who love regular people. And sometimes they like glitter and glowsticks. I believe Peru will be decently free of homophobic violence in the foreseeable future.

After pride, I went out with Renzo to get his haircut because it was his birthday, and then we ate some cheap food.

I ordered fried chicken again, and got a tasty veggie appetizer.

Happy birthday! He then had a party that was really noisy until 4am and his friends used up my toilet paper but whatevz. Gotta live sometime. :)

Amiguitos en el acensor.