"Oh my, what a marvelous tune!" Emma clapped her hands as she, Princeton, Quincy, and Maggie 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?" Maggie 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," Maggie 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 Maggie 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," Maggie 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 Maggie 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…

It was hard to extricate Pride from religion when, at every Pride event, at least a few Bible-beaters just had to make themselves known.

"Awww, come on, brother, don't worry too much about things you can't change." Good old Quincy sidled over to Princeton's side, back near the river. It was the only place the protestors literally could not reach. While Princeton gazed forlornly at the water's dark gray surface, Quincy looked casual as he tried (and failed) to skip rocks on the rippling surface.

"You've won so many battles, and changed so many things, already," Maggie agreed, joining Quincy and Princeton by the river. She looked meaningfully at the trans flag trailing behind him in the warm, summer breeze.

"Yeah…I guess you're right…" Princeton managed a small smile.

"Don't you see the starlight?" Emma asked him. "Don't you dream impossible things?"

"Of course I do," Princeton replied, the smile on his face growing in size and conviction. Yes, he knew exactly what she meant. There used to be a time when he never thought he'd able to transition or live the way he wanted to. Not in their conversative state! But the impossible came true…

ooo

As the day rolled on, the quartet split apart briefly, each wanting to spend some time exploring the Pride Fest alone before they'd reconvene later on. Princeton stopped by an Icee truck and got a drink before returning to the riverside to sit on one of the benches there and reminiscence. He went back to that first-glance feeling in New York Time. The Stonewall Inn Pride Night had been absolutely magical, true starlight. He never looked down that night, but he still knew that right there where he stood was historical, holy ground.

Now he was at a local Pride. It was a little less glamorous, fabulous, and extravagant, but he still felt like a man in his first-time suit. He had this big wide city all to himself and he blocked the noise of the zealots and haters with the sound of, "I love you!" coming from himself to the Pride Fest, and from the Fest to him. It was funny, even though religion could very much be at odds with the queer community (especially historically) there was something almost…religious, or at least spiritual, about being able to embrace his true self.

For the first time, he had something to lose. He finally had a community he felt connected to, and an identity that he felt truly fit him. The beginning hadn't been easy, that was for sure. He guessed he fell apart in the usual way, a tale as old as time and a story with dust on every page. Sometimes he wondered how the others thought about it now, since each of them had gone through their own Coming Out Coming of Age story. He could see their faces, their stories, in every crowd. Everyone here had a story to tell…

Princeton was glad to say his wasn't too bad, since his family was supportive. But it wasn't always easy to deal with the rest of the world.

"You would've made such a lovely girl, what a shame you're messed in the head!" they said.

"But I was never a girl," Princeton tried to tell them. That was what they didn't seem to get. "I was a female, but I wasn't a girl."

As for Quincy, even though he was lighthearted and jovial, he'd said before how hard and awkward it could be to be aro-ace sometimes, especially as a man. Wasn't he supposed to be hypersexual and like pretty girls? At first, he assumed he was bi or pan, just because he felt as though he liked all genders equally. Then he realized why. It was because he wasn't attracted to any of them.

"But hey, zero equals zero, so I guess I was…sort of correct!" he joked.

As for Maggie, her story was more like Princeton's. She was intersex and queer, and she'd always known. It was just about getting society to accept it. She still identified as a woman and used female pronouns, but after taking up they/them pronouns as well, a few people thought that was asking too much. They would interrogate her over her logic and question whether or not it was really necessary or deserved of her to do such a thing. As far as Maggie was concerned, it would've been way easier if the world just took her at face value, but no, they had to make it as hard as possible.

"I'm not trying to get brownie points for being "extra queer", or whatever!" she once said. "I'm just trying to acknowledge the fact that I'm not cis-sexual. And obviously I know what my genitals are, but I highly doubt anyone else wants me to show them off just to confirm what my sex is!"

"I mean, I wouldn't mind," Quincy teased.

"Say that again and I'll beat you up," she replied, but even though her tone and face were fierce, they all knew she was only teasing, too.

"I mean, I wou—pffft!" Quincy started. Emma elbowed him.

"Play nice," she said, smiling serenely.

"Play nice?!" Quincy gasped, clutching his stomach and giving Emma an incredulous look.

"Oh, you're fine," Emma rolled her eyes and smirked at him. He only shook his head and chuckled back.

Speaking of Emma, she always joked that she had it easiest out of the quartet.

"I'm a boring cis woman," she joked. "And I'm an art-freak. As is the rest of my family. Was it any wonder when I came out as bi?" In her words, the only exciting part of her sexuality was the fact that she was polyamorous and demisexual. She'd even come to see their little quartet as something of a "polycule", although of course, she knew it wasn't official, and never would be. For one, they only liked each other as friends. For another, at least in Quincy's case, that was a little out of the question.

"I don't mind calling ya sista, though!" he said, throwing a chummy arm around her. The others were quick to follow suit in a giant group hug. "The gays can finally get married, even if we don't marry each other. We're going to see the world and teach it how to dream!"

"You're talking crazy!" Maggie snorted, shaking her head, but she was smiling.

ooo

Come sundown, the quartet was back together on the walking bridge, overlooking the Pride Fest below and enjoying the starlight above. It was the best night Princeton could remember, at least in recent times, and it only got better when the yacht from earlier moved to the center of the river and started lighting off fireworks, more starlight.

There was also an auditory part of the show in which someone gave a speech over Pride's long, difficult history, and all the losses and triumphs it took to reach today in the summer of '22. There was a tribute to all the fallen queer heroes of their history. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Matthew Shepherd, Leelah Alcorn, Harvey Milk, Judy Garland, Alan Turing, Bayard Rustin, Audre Lorde, and Virginia Woolf were just a few of the names listed in the tribute.

Wish you guys could've been here. Even if we're just a bunch of smalltown losers, I'm sure you guys still would've had the best night here. Princeton looked up at the starlight, and at the same time, from down below, another marvelous tune started to play:

Tonight I'm going to dance for all that we've been through!

But I don't wanna dance if I'm not dancing with you.

Tonight I'm going to dance like you were in this room!

But I don't wanna dance if I'm not dancing with you…

He never looked down, but as far as he was concerned, right there where he stood, on the walking bridge beside his friends above the Pride Fest and below the starlight, it was holy ground, and it was good!

AN: Semi-sequel to the Pride Fest these guys went to in NYC. This was just based off the Louisville Pride, since that's the one I always go to. And funny enough, in one of my years there, I DID listen to Starlight and Holy Ground on loop, so this song choice for today's story was not random. 2/3 of the way through, guys! Hope it's been a great, gay one full of marvelous tunes and starlight!