Amsterdam Pride – Once Upon a Journey

Roxanne & Maartje - Amsterdam Pride

There’s no time to rest, as the next Pride celebrations are already here! After a fantastic Pride weekend in Berlin, we fly back to Amsterdam. We rest and work for two days in Eemnes before the exciting new things are happening. Amsterdam Pride is a lot about partying but we also have some meetings coming up. Somehow, now that we are back in the Netherlands we get opportunities to connect with people we couldn’t connect anywhere else before (read: networking!).

The highlight of Amsterdam Pride is the canal parade on the first Saturday of August. This year will be the first time we will go on a boat of the parade. Normally we see all the boats passing by from the streets so it’s going to be a whole different experience this time. Thanks to our new Berlin-slash-gay-friend Haroon Ali we connect with some great people from Amsterdam Marketing and that’s how we get the opportunity to be on the NYC-Amsterdam boat. Why an NYC-Amsterdam boat? Next year, 2019, NYC will host World Pride. Something we are already insanely excited for. Mark June 2019 in your agenda: World Pride time! See you there?!

Amsterdam Pride is a lot different than most Prides worldwide. In Amsterdam, it started as a celebration of freedom and diversity instead of a demonstration. Prides elsewhere are usually inspired by the Stonewall riots, but in the Netherlands, that’s continued by Pink Saturday. In 1996 Amsterdam Pride started. The canal parade grew the past years till a parade of 80 boats and over 500.000 visitors! To make our boat even more special we learn a choreography. Together we will dance on the song Go West from the Pet Shop Boys, the entire boat ride.

By Roxanne & Maartje – Full Story at Once Upon a Journey

Netherlands Gay Travel Resources

Gay Whistler – The Nomadic Boys

Gay Whistler - The Nomadic Boys

What do you get when you mix together a bunch of gay boys, a giant rainbow flag and a huge pile of Canadian snow? The Whistler Pride and Ski Festival of course!

We were very excited to attend the 26th annual Whistler Pride week in January 2018. We love skiing, especially gay ski festivals as they always have the best parties.

Where is Whistler?

Whistler is a small town north of Vancouver in the British Columbia province of Canada. It’s famous for having one of the largest ski resorts in North America and for hosting some of the events of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The town is surrounded by two mountains: Whistler (2,184m/7,165ft) and Blackcomb (2,436m/7992ft). There are over 200 marked ski trails in between the two mountains, catering to all difficulty levels: green for beginners, blue for intermediate, black for advanced and double blacks for people who are just plain mad!

The Whistler Pride and Ski Festival is one of the biggest and best LGBTQ ski events in North America. We absolutely loved it and highly recommend it to all gay travellers seeking out a gay ski event to attend. To show you just how awesome it was, here are our 5 amazing things to do during the Whistler Pride week.

By Stefan Arestis – Full Story at the Nomadic Boys

Whistler Gay Travel Resources

Transgender Crosswalk Hits the Streets of Calgary

Transgender Crosswalk - Calgary

Two new crosswalks have appeared in Calgary in time for pride, one rainbow and one with the transgender pride colors.

It is the first time that the city has painted a trans pride crosswalk, and becomes the third Canadian city to do so, after after Whitehorse and Lethbridge. The one in Lethbridge is the first permanent transgender crosswalk.

The crosswalks in Calgary can be found at 4 St. and 17 Ave. S.W.

“It’s quite a positive and supportive statement for our city to have that done,” Jason Kingsley, president and executive producer of Calgary Pride, said.

By Jeff Taylor – Full Story at LGBTQ Nation

Alberta Gay Travel Resources