So I have a blog-size thing I wrote that I was going to post yesterday, but it needed some editing to wrangle out of my speach-isms, and I realised it was basically the last couple of days of June so I only had a limited window to finish my something pride-themed before it went out of fashion.
So, I took an informal poll of all my queer friends at the start of the month as to which locomotive out of a selection was the most queer-coded. They chose the BR Class 08 shunter (or actually, the NS Class 600, but in all ways that matter there is no difference), developed under the LMS in 1936 - The Gronk. SO, my challenge was to pride the little sucker up. Thought I did Okay with it. I borrowed a little with one of the Derail Valley Pride liveries by going with a teal overall with rainbow racing stripes on the side, and then added my embellishments- like numbering the engine after the first night of the Stonewall Riots (June 28). I thought the trans flag hazard stripes are a cute touch, and there's one extra little pride flag easter egg if you know where to look.
It's been a particularly frightening and dangerous year for a lot of us, but like the 08, we're built different and will throw our whole hearts and asses into the effort of moving forward - even if that means we're going at a comparable crawl. Happy pride to all you lovely gronks out there, let's finish what we started.