Double celebration: Happy Eid and Happy Pride.
Chicago Pride 2017.
Last month we celebrated the Pride Month, I participated for the first year in Chicago Pride, not just Chicago but in all America, Which also came in the same time with the celebration of Eid.
Since I was born every year for Eid I get up super excited and dress up the Eid new clothes and look into my day agenda of my celebration which starts from my parents to siblings to cousins and end up hanging out with friends. For this year I was truly worried of waking up and see people going to work and it’s going to be a normal working day for me which will ended me up with some sadness and homesickness.
When I was watching the news in Jordan and saw that the Eid will be on Sunday, I felt happy as it’s a day off then when I looked at the calendar and I saw that I have a full agenda of celebration for the Chicago Pride with my new friends! YAAAAAAAAAAAS!
A day before the celebration I mixed my traditional clothes with the pride clothes as I prepared two different outfits that fits to each occasion, after I put them together I had an awesome feeling even though before I joined I had so many concerns as an Arab participating in such an event as a pride because the stereotyped image of the male Arabs Muslims Identity.
I had a great day of joy and happiness also felt the pride with the American people, and I remembered many of my Arab and Middle Eastern friends that would envy this moment of joy and happiness as unfortunately even in the most progressive places in ME the LGBTQ+ community are pushed in the closet and feeling shame of their identity.