Irhaboggle Pride (2022) Gaylor Swift's Version

Starlight, Holy Ground

"Oh my, what a marvelous tune!" Emma clapped her hands as she, Princeton, Quincy, and Mallory stood on the walking bridge, overlooking their local Pride Fest down below. Princeton, in particular, was starstruck. He was having the best time and he knew he would never forget how he and his friends moved through the fairgrounds. They sang and danced, just soaking up all the lovely gay vibes. The whole place was dressed to the nines, and everyone was dancing like they were made of rainbows, sunshine, and starlight.

He met his friends on the fairgrounds, summer of '22, stayed late into the night with no curfew. They were so youthful and crazy, running wild. None of them could remember what song was playing when they walked in, but they remembered spotting a yacht floating down the river...

"Care to be gay and do crimes?" Quincy asked, gesturing to the yacht. "We can sneak in pretending to be three duchesses and a prince(ton)!"

"Three?" Mallory quirked an eyebrow, snickering.

"I'm dressed in drag, honey, I make the sexiest duchess of us all!" Quincy insisted, fluffing his oversized wig and gesturing to his oversized dress. How he thought he was going to be able to sneak into a yacht club party in that outfit was beyond the rest of them.

"I meant me," Mallory smirked. She always preferred to dress more androgynously.

"Well, duchesses don't always have to be high-femme," Quincy shrugged. Actually, of the four of them, he was probably the most feminine today. Princeton and Emma were in rainbow tee shirts and shorts while Mallory was wearing leather shorts and a sleeveless leather jacket.

"What if I want to be a queen, or a countess?" Emma joined in on the joke.

"Ok, fine, we can be the entire court," Quincy pretended to throw his hands up in exasperation.

"I'll be the king, you're the royal fool," Mallory replied, not missing a beat. Quincy tried to look offended, but the joke was so good and quick that he only burst out laughing. Soon, they all were, and Princeton could only think, Oh my, what a marvelous tune! The yacht suddenly blared its horn.

"Oh, if we want to sneak aboard, we better move!" Emma said, taking off in a sprint and leaving the others to scramble after her. Of course, the whole place was dressed to the nines, but the quartet still danced like they were made of starlight. Fake it until you make it, right?!

ooo

About an hour later, they were right back where they started, successfully sneaking back off the yacht and onto the fairgrounds once again.

"Oh, great, looks like we got back just in time," Quincy said sarcastically, alerting the others to a small congregation of protestors that were lingering around the gates. The entire Pride Fest was fenced off and some of the protestors were lining up around the fence so as to spread out as best they could. Princeton felt his shoulders slump. Emma crinkled her nose and covered her ears while Mallory cracked her knuckles.

"I'm about to go full girlboss on their—"

Luckily, security managed to rally them back up and move them back over to the far side of the farthest gate. Technically, they had a right to protest the Pride Fest, but they did not have a right to disrupt the peace. But even after their hateful shouts and signs were relegated back to the farthest reaches of the fest, where they belonged, Princeton's gloomy expression didn't lighten.

Man, why do they always have to do this? So many people complain that the gays need to stop bringing religion into everything and that we need to stop blaming religion for all of our woes, but then THIS happens. I mean, if anything, these religious nutcases need to stop bringing THEMSELVES into everything. I'd be totally content to have a nonreligious, or even religion-positive, Pride, but...