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Despite being effectively cut off from the rest of society, Camp Half-Blood still celebrated pride month. Sure, their little society of demigods and the like didn't discriminate over things like that, but a lot of the demigods at camp had experiences in the mortal world where they faced struggles due to things like gender identity or sexuality. It was a disappointing thing to learn of, but Chiron decided to celebrate the mortals' "pride month" in honor of all that they overcame.
The month wasn't anything too wild- The only real difference for most of it was the decor. Some half-bloods wore pins or hung up flags on their bunks to represent them. A few rainbow banners were hung around the Big House and amphitheater. Not much beyond that. However, on the last day of June, they would hold a parade near the cabins. That was when most of the fun happened.
"Good morning, Seaweed Brain" Annabeth said with a small smile as she stepped into the Poseidon cabin. Percy, who was still half asleep, just groaned in response. It was too damn early in the morning, in his opinion at least. Truthfully, he knew that 9 AM wasn't that early (some people at the camp may have even considered that to be sleeping in), but he was tired. The previous day had been a very active one, and he just wanted rest.
"What do you want, Annabeth?" he asked her, rolling over in his bed and opening an eye to look at her. It was then that he noticed that she was holding two bundles of cloth, and on her shirt was a small pin- Magenta, purple, and blue. He instantly recognized it to be the bi colors, as he also identified as such. She threw one of the fabrics at him, and he realized that it was a flag of the same pattern. "It's the parade today, dumbass"
"Oh" Percy replied, suddenly feeling a bit silly for not being up earlier. He'd actually been quite excited for this day- He had a hard time in his early years because of Gabe. Sally, of course, was always so accepting of him, but Gabe was a whole different story. He was bi, so... He could choose, right? "Just hit on the women" Gabe had told him, as if it was that simple. "Don't be a faggot"
Percy got out of bed and Annabeth turned around so he could get fully changed into some proper clothes. "Should we go see our friends before the parade?" he asked as he put on some jeans and his orange, Camp Half-Blood shirt. He took the flag and haphazardly wrapped it around his collar to make a sort of cape. Annabeth did the same. "Sure thing" the blonde agreed, turning around to face him again now that he was fully dressed. "Besides, I am a little curious to see what all people have done this year"
First, they decided to visit Thalia, as her cabin was the closest. Percy knocked on the door first, just to be polite. He considered the half-blood to be a friend (especially since the two were so closely related), but he also knew she could have a short temper at the best of times. Barging into her place while it was still relatively early probably would end with him being electrocuted.
She opened the door and smiled upon seeing what they were wearing. "Shit, I nearly forgot" she said with a chuckle as she walked to the back of her cabin where her bunk was, leaving the door open as a silent invitation for the pair to enter. She pulled out a flag of her own- This one was a sort of gradient that went from a red/orange color to white to pink. Percy recognized it to be the lesbian colors. The flag clearly had some wear and tear, but it was still useable, so she wrapped it around her collar as the other two had with a small smile.
"I almost forgot today was the parade" she said again, though neither of the other half-bloods minded her repeating the same sentiment twice. They all had ADHD, so things like that were not uncommon, and they never really poked fun at each other for it. "Do you know when it is exactly?"
"It's at noon, so we have a few hours to prepare" Annabeth replied. Percy looked down at the watch Tyson had given him to confirm, and yeah. It was only 9:10 at the moment. He almost wanted to tell his friend off for waking him up 3 hours before the parade even started, but he refrained. Honestly, he shouldn't even have been surprised. This was Annabeth, of course she was gonna have people up way before it was necessary.
As they were all discussing this, Grover appeared at the doorway. "Knock, knock" he said to get their attention. Percy almost instinctively asked "Who's there?" but stopped himself as he realized that was not Grover's point and him trying to turn it into a joke would probably just confuse the others.
The satyr did not have a flag wrapped around his color, but he did have a headband on that sported the colors of pink, yellow, and light blue. Thalia chuckled as she saw this. "Is your headband a play on the whole 'I'm basically Pan's son' thing, or what?" she asked, and Grover went red as he realized the coincidence of it. "No" he replied with a chuckle of his own. "No, it's not. But that is funny- That never even crossed my mind!"
The di Angelo siblings were sitting next to each other in the Hades cabin, still trying to wrap their minds around the fact that there were now words and colors to attribute to their queerness. A part of their minds were still stuck back in the 1930s, so it was... Certainly an adjustment, but they welcomed it with open arms.
They didn't get flags- The concept of "online shopping" still confused the fuck out of them, so they avoided it at all costs. Thankfully though, there were charts posted around camp that showed the different patterns and what they meant. From there, they were able to label themselves accordingly. Once that was settled, they grabbed some paint and decided to put the patterns on their cheeks.
Bianca, being the older one, did hers first, promising to help Nico with his after. She sat down in front of the mirror and silently applied paint to both of her cheeks- A green to white to black gradient on one to represent aromanticism and black/grey/white/purple on the other to represent asexuality. As soon as she had seen those patterns on the chart (along with their definitions), she instantly connected with them. It was one of the reasons she had so quickly agreed to be a Hunter- She had no attachment to the ideas of romance or sex with anybody, let alone boys.
Nico eagerly pointed out the two flags he wanted on his own face once she was done. One was a blue/pink/white/pink/blue pattern (Trans colors), and the other was a blue to white to green gradient (MLM colors). Bianca just smiled as she applied the paint to his cheeks. Both of them made perfect sense, he just never had any not severely stigmatized terms to apply to it before. Again, they came from the 1930s. Terms like "transgender" and "gay" were not nearly as common as phrases like "cross-dressing freak" or "probably gonna be a pedophile when he grows up"
Nico looked in the mirror and smiled. He couldn't even imagine trying to announce that he was really a boy- Or that he liked his fellow boys- Back in the 30s. But, this wasn't the 30s. Hell, this wasn't even the same century. Sure, he still would not be perfectly accepted by everyone he ran into, but at least now he knew that his probability of being murdered for his identity was significantly lower, especially in a place like Camp Half-Blood.
Going to the parade was such a special experience for everyone, and it also helped everyone to understand each other a little better.
Zoë Nightshade wore the same colors as Thalia did, which made perfect sense to all who saw. In fact, a lot of the other Hunters were also found wearing those patterns. Those who weren't had varying aspec flags, and Percy also noticed that a few of the women were wearing trans colors. He was glad to know that they accepted all women, even those who weren't born in the traditionally feminine body.
He and Annabeth went to find Chiron (who Percy noticed had painted the ace flag into his fur) and asked when the parade would start. He smiled down at them, glad to see them participating. Sure, it was heavily encouraged for everyone to attend (even if they were just allies), but that didn't necessarily mean that everyone did. Some people simply had their plates full of other tasks to accomplish, so it always made the centaur happy when he saw someone who could come.
"It's at noon, I told you that" he replied with a small chuckle. Percy looked down at his watch and then looked back up at him with a blank expression. "It's 12:27"
"Oh, shit"
The parade was great.
Some were more impressed than others. After all, Annabeth and Grover had seen plenty of these over the years. But for people like Percy, Thalia, and the di Angelos, this was their first time being to any pride parade, let alone a magic one. Percy always missed the different celebrations due to being on quests, Thalia had never gotten to stay at camp before, and the di Angelos were brand new and came from long before a time where pride parades were a thing.
"There's so many people like us" Nico said with a smile as he and the others walked around. Percy smiled at the kid. He remembered having a similar feeling when he'd gotten to middle school and started to realize just how many other queer kids there really were. A part of him had always assumed there was something wrong with him due to Gabe's abuse. But seeing so many people who were similar to him had been really eye-opening. "There really is" Bianca agreed with a smile of her own. It was a time that neither of them would soon forget, and those who had seen it before were still excited to see their new friends' reactions.
After all, not every pride parade had a team of queer satyrs playing godawful reed pipe music while two of Ares' kids sparred inside of a golden chariot.