My first pride experience - the important and still surpressed beauty of holding hands

As I wrote in my previous, inaugural blog, I am currently deep into vacation mode in Amsterdam. And, as so happens, Amsterdam yesterday launched this years edition of Europride, which this year takes place in Amsterdam. As both me, my girlfriend, and her two daughters are highly interested in people from all walks of life, and of how they can most naturally be fully integrated in a well-functioning society, we of course could not miss this event. As this was also my first attendance at a pride parade, I naturally also made a number of observations. Out of these there is one that surprised me a bit, and that I really want to mention here.

Picture from the event yesterday, the parade is walking by. I am here standing in the second row watching, but later on, we all joined in the marching as well. In the middle, you can see two older women holding hands. 

The observation that stood out to me was not any of the very colorful displays of imaginative clothing; not the exotic and highly revealing dresses worn by both men, women, and every thinkable combination thereof; it was not the tallest or the shortest; not the strongest or the weakest of the people seen in the parade. It was intstead something much more simple: the holding of hands. As you can see in the picture above, there were in the parade and in the festival in general many couples walking by, holding hands. And, while that does not seem like a major thing to do, what stood out to me was my sudden realization that I have almost never seen elderly people of the same sex do that before - and how beautiful and loving it looked. In fact, I have only rarely seen couples of the same sex - of any age - hold hands before. In contrast, seeing couples of different sexes, so-called heterosexual couples, holding hands is so mainstream that you don't think about it, as is seeing such couples kiss and do other public displays of affections. But to see couples of the same sex do such simple displays of affection - and especially elderly couples - that is still much more seldomly seen in our public arenas.


I generally consider Sweden a quite progressive country, and I believe that we by international standards have come far in terms of gender equality, and in terms of acceptance and integration of the entire spectrum of HBTQ people in our society. While thinking such thoughts, it is natural to also sometimes contemplate thoughts such as "Do we still need pride parades in our society?", i.e. are their roles played out? However, when now realizing that such a simple a thing as the holding of hands still is repressed - perhaps not by law, perhaps not even by public shaming and harrassments, but by self-censorship - then we most certainly still need these types of events. They must serve as a wonderful and important breath of fresh air, as a place of relief, for people who everyday live with this self-censorship upon them, and they serve as a reminder to us all that we still have a long way to go until the beauty of love displayed simply and naturally in public is something that is a natural thing for all of us.