Queer as in Fuck You: A Photo Series

By blu

This photo series was a community submission sent to The Rival American for Pride Week

This was at the vigil for the victims of the Orlando Pulse shooting. I was in eighth grade and within 3 days after this, I did a presentation on lgbtqia+ history and rights that was a culmination of a year of research. I was constantly told there would not be enough information for me to research. (I ended up writing a total of 100 pages of research papers that year that spanned three papers.)

My oral presentation was 56 minutes in total.

This is from a pride parade in Montreal. Similar feelings as the previous image, but filled with less pain and grief. It was 2 years later and is also the place I discovered that pride does not have to go hand in hand with the grief and pain and shame of death and hate.

This vigil, which is photographed in image one & three was one of the first places that I really felt at home among people. I was surrounded by people like me. It was exhilarating and eye-opening that I so rarely had seen before.