Driving with Pride!

I worked as a Lyft Driver for 3 years. My first year I marched with Lyft in the Pride Parade and met all kinds of fabulous along the entire route then spent the rest of the day giving rides to people heading to the Pride Festival. It was one of my most memorable days ever. The day passed in a blur of color and singing and love. The most fun moment was taking a young man to a local bar to meet his friends who were waiting there with signs and balloons and flowers to celebrate his Coming Out and his 21st birthday. The most poignant moment was driving a woman past her sister who was standing with protesters at the entrance holding a sign that read, "Jesus Hates You". We had a long wait to get to the drop off point so I handed her tissues, held her hand for a minute and let her sit in the car long enough to fix her make up. I wish I could have done more.

I had just started as a Lyft driver a few months prior to Pride, and decided that although my participation in the day for my LGBTQIA+ community members had been pretty good, I had to step up my game the following year. And the way I was going to do that was with great music.

I learned pretty quickly that the more comfortable I could make people when they got into this stranger's car, the better. They were happier and it could even help my tips. I started creating playlists--I had two for Friday and Saturday nights, one to get you going and one to wind you down when you were heading home. I created playlists for the Fourth of July, playlists for Christmas, for Sundays, for going to work, for leaving work and I created one for Pride month. I had one rule for my playlists--the songs had to be familiar--nothing too new, no tracks too deep. I wanted that hit of recognition when people got in my car. It made them trust me more and more likely to engage in a real conversation. And I tell all my passengers that they are welcome to sing along with the caveat that they don't have to be good but they do have to have fun. It surprises me how much that opens people up.

I was pretty excited my first day out with the playlist. It was the Friday night of the Pride Festival and the rides were coming one after another. And it seemed to me that for every ride, all weekend, the PERFECT song came on. As if God was managing the shuffle function on my playlist. Cyndi Lauper's True Colors for the 19-year old boy who lost his whole family when he came out. Fortunately the ride was long enough that we got to sing, I'm Still Standing by Elton John to reset the mood before we reached the festival. A group of teens who were attending for the first time sang I'm Coming Out with Diana Ross. Four drag queens happened to be in the car when Ru Paul's Sissy That Walk came on. Three lesbians got in just as the Indigo Girls started singing Closer to Fine. Two transgender college students rolled down the windows and sang Melissa Etheridge's Yes I Am at the top of their lungs. Two men sat in the back seat holding each other hands, looked into each other's eyes and affirmed I Will Survive with Gloria Gaynor. Madonna started singing Vogue when four men wearing tuxedos got in. And we did, all the way to the festival. Two men from India knew every word to Kasey Musgrave's Follow Your Arrow. And everytime Dancing Queen came on we'd roll down the windows, turn it up and let everyone sing with us. But my favorite sing-a-long moment was when we were stuck waiting for a train to pass and when Sister Sledge started singing We Are Family, everyone sang--me, my passengers, all the pedestrians waiting to cross the tracks. Because we are.

You can check out my playlist @ https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/pride/pl.u-11zBBygT84d1aLD. I hope you enjoy it.