I hadn’t been to any Pride events since 2000, but yesterday I went! I had been asked to interpret for the DC Dyke March, and I was happy to do so. (They weren’t paying me anything, so I asked for one of the “MARSHAL” t-shirts other volunteers were given.) I had thought the interpreting would all be before the march, but it turned out there was one speaker, then the march, and then another speaker. Prior to the march there was a group of deaf girls there, but they paid absolutely no attention to me - oh well. I chatted with some deaf gay boys during the march and invited them to join us, but they were heading for Lambda Rising instead. I spent most of the march tagging along with boiswillbebois and the “Femmes Car” which contained pegsioux, bias_cut, and a couple of other lovely ladies. After the march, the speaker was Jessi Holman-Ahart, who is one of my absolute favorite people in the leather community. I didn’t see any deaf people, but I interpreted anyway; afterward a deaf woman came up and thanked me, so I’m glad at least someone was there!

After I was done, I headed over to the Eagle for the deaf leather workshops being given by boy alex. fairerhiannon and I were the only hearing people there, although Jessi and her partner Janet turned up briefly so fairerhiannon and I voice interpreted while they were around. She and I went out for dinner in Chinatown after the workshops (and 30-45 minutes of goodbyes) were done. I had been hoping to go to Crystal City to see Amy Armstrong perform, but I was too exhausted so drove me back to the metro and I got my car and went home.

This morning I noticed two things on the Pride schedule. First, I saw Amy and Freddy will be performing on the main stage this afternoon. Second, I noticed a complete lack of interpreting services - they weren’t mentioned anywhere on the website or in the official publication. Now, this year’s Pride theme is “Many Communities, All Proud”> - and yet they are ignoring the large local deaf gay community! So right now I am on the metro heading downtown to volunteer my services (I’m so nice). If they don’t need me I will just hang around the festival until Amy performs; I interpreted for her on the RSVP cruise last year so I’m going to try to ask if I can do that again. She is such a riot!

Yesterday I got a moderately strong sunburn because I completely forgot about that big star up there in the sky. So today I brought two kinds of sunblock - the regular kind, and the new “mist” no-rub kind. The latter is awfully weird - today is the first time I’ve tried it - so I’m glad I brought the regular kind, too.