I had my schedule filled, it basically consisted of this:

• 11:45 - 12:00. Opening.
• 13:00 - 13:45. Firstly Asexual, Secondly Heterosexual about the difficulties people with disabilities encounter out there with regards to their sexuality.
• 13:30 - 14:30. BDSM and discrimination Can you open up about your interest anywhere? Will it get you fired from work? ...
• 14:00 - 15:00. Alternative to the mono norm An open panel where polyamorous and relationship anarchy [my name for it, which is a direct translation of the Swedish "Relationsanarki", and the page I point to is in Swedish] is being presented, talked about, discussed.
• 14:00 - 14:45. Coming out - to and for who? A panel of people telling different stories about coming out.
• 15:00 - 15:45. Both/either or A seminar about bisexuality and being bisexual.
• 17:15 - 17:45. Perverse and proud of it Tiina Rosenberg will hold a speach about being queer.
• 20:00 - 22:00. Open soccer training with Stockholm Snipers

So what did I end up doing?

I went to the opening, where sound quality was horrible, unfortunately, but I found a few friends, Fredrik, Karin, Kristine, and met a new person, Emmanuel (friend of Fredrik's).

After that, I used the free time to shop some clothes, came back to Pride House and had myself a small snack and ended up exchanging greetings with Ulf Schyldt and then went on to the Firstly Asexual, Secondly Heterosexual seminar. That was quite an interesting seminar that talks about the history of how people with disabilities have been regarded from a sexual standpoint. Have you realised that people with disabilities were regarded as asexual, not a long time ago? Can you say ableism? But then, when you get past that first hurdle, the next thing is to hit upon the assumption of heterosexuality...

Aaaaanyway, after that seminar, I walked around and was approached by a young lady who came from tv4.se and said she was doing a photo clip/slide show with "cool styles at Pride" and wondered if she could take a picture of me. I took the flattery and thought that this could be fun, so I went along with it.

Shortly after that, I found a bunch of friends again, some of those I had already met earlier, and Gabriel, Kip, and another new person, Jenny, who's a friend of Charlie's and Kip's and who I've heard quite a bit about (and, I realised, yet very little!) and had wanted to meet for quite a while! Yay!

We ended up all chatting for a while and I didn't go to the BDSM and discrimination seminar, but you know, I'm not too sad about that. Instead, I went to the Coming out - to and for who?, and it was quite interesting for a bit. I found it interesting that they had quite a diverse panel, among others the father of a girl who had come out as lesbian, and it was interesting to hear his story and the fact that when a child has come out, the parents have their own "coming out" process, and to hear a little about that. They did a pretty cool thing to start the seminar; the whole panel "came out" with fairly banal things, such as having a cold, which illustrated that while it feels like a big deal, it's really only because social norm says that coming out as gay, bi, homosexual, poly, whatever is unusual, unaccepted, weird, controversial... There was also the question if one really has to come out, and for what reason; the conclusion felt a bit obvious, that it was for oneself, not so much for the others.

After a bit, I got tired of the coming out seminar and moved over to Alternative to the mono norm and ended up being a bit fascinated, mostly because I got to listen to some relational anarchists and got a little different perspective on it than before...

At this point, there were a number of us wondering what we'd do next and some being a bit hungry, that became the focus, and I totally forgot about the Both/either or seminar, which is kind of a pity since that belongs with fairly new discoveries about myself, but on the other hand, I'm quite sure the opportunities for discoveries will not end. Plus, while chatting and deciding what we all would do, I got a nice hug and a kiss from Jenny, which was very nice though a bit unexpected after having chatted for, oh I think it's about half an hour in total? A short while later, Kip, Jenny, Karin and I went eating and got to know each other a little better, telling each other about little bits of our respective lives. Nice :-). Then Kip and Jenny went shopping, and Karin and I kept each other company and talked, mostly about dancing since that's one of her favorite things in life, while waiting for the time to go to the Perverse and proud of it seminar... unfortunately, we came there too late, the place was packed way in advance, ...

Eventually, I went shopping some boots and went home, exhausted and yet having a long, important and dearly needed talk with Åsa. But that's a different story...