6.3 this morning.
Pride was over all a fun day. The parade was disrupted by four youth who glued themselves to the front of the lead float after throwing red paint at it. They were pro Palestine protesters whose supporters in the crowd actually said to me that if Hamas were allowed to rule in peace then they’d become a fully western style democracy with enshrined lgbtq+ and women’s rights written in to law. They’re delusional.
The police used solvent to unstick them from the lorry and carted the four of them off in police vans. There was a momentary murmur of “From the river to the sea” and I was told that if I was a Zionist then I wasn’t “a real Jew”. I was also told by someone who was a similar age to me that the world wouldn’t be at peace until all the Jews were dead.
They were adorned with a variety of pro-Pal badges and were wrapped up in the Pride Progress flag. I lost my rag a bit. Swearing did occur. A police officer said that he wasn’t worth arguing with because he was an idiot and he’d win as he’s more experience being one than I had.
Anyway… meandered to the Jewish Pride part (organised totally independently, in Soho, surrounded by police in uniform and with plain clothed and armed officers also in attendance) stayed a while there. Then perambulated through Soho and visited some of the stages. Heard some fabulous singing at one of them, only deciding to move on when Killing Me Softly was being murdered by someone who took the title as an instruction.
Back to the Jewish area which was packed now. Ate falafel and humus, danced, flirted, enjoyed myself!
Lots of people stopped me and took pics of my T-shirt.
View attachment 36106
“Feygele” is a very traditional insult. Technically it means “little bird” and it’s specifically a tiny little, very delicate songbird but it was a derogatory term for gay men way before the term “gay” was used.
