Pride festival

By Ben R

The word Pride has different meanings, like "a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, or even consciousness of one's own dignity," but the one you find at San Jose’s Yerba Buena High School is the most different. 

Saturday 11, 2023, is a day to be remembered, just seeing the many vendors and just the people who came to support and to show how they support. 

When walking around and seeing the many things they were there for, I came across this vendor called “TheQCorner,” a Behavioral Health Services Department program dedicated to supporting the LGBTQ+ community and their friends, families, and allies in Santa Clara County. When speaking to them, they were some of the most supportive and just all around really fun and amazing people to be around. 

Another thing I saw when there were performances. Some were dance performances, some were singing, and some were a band performance. They were outstanding and even a certain person was singing and I even got to interview them and got to know their own reasons for singing at the event and what it means to them. 

Cristel Garcia: “I think it’s good to support the people, and the fact it’s our first event, it’s huge and I want to be here to experience it.”

Another vendor I went by was selling Brownies and Cookies. They were really good, and I even got to play their Trivia game about naming each flag. I didn’t get any right sadly, but they still gave me some candy for trying. A person who was working there I got to interview them and ask them what the event means to them. 

Jennifer Lam: “It’s a Pride Festival, right, so I wanted to come to support. This is our first Pride Festival and I wanted to be there to support the school and to support Pride as best as I could.”

Hosting such an event and bringing awareness and shining light onto the subject has such an impact on those who identify with the event. I hope we can continue to have events like these so I can support my community as much as possible.