On 5-6-2015, Pleasanton, CA hosted the 2015 Cinco De Mayo Festival in downtown. I attended the event and was able to get some street photography type shots from the event. It was really fun with all the music, food, and (the best part) free swag! :) I hope you enjoy viewing these shots. Hope you all had a wonderful Cinco De Mayo. Please note this blog post is a bit longer than my usual blog posts, so it might take a big longer to load if you are on a slower internet connection.
Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best event photos, use this
link. To see all of my 2015 Pleasanton, CA photos, use this
link.
Dancers at the event.
Black and white process of the photo above.
A photo of the people and stands at the event.
Black and white process of the photo above.
A problem at affects me perfectly. I had to get a photo of them, and gave them $1 (the last small bill in my wallet). When I grew up, we didn't have these. I was so confused about my gender identity. While I was born biologically a male, I always felt I was female inside, and I didn't understand. I struggled for many many years, trying to behave masculine, and try to be a man. That did not work out, I never felt like myself, and I tried to take my own life several times. It wasn't until later I was taught about being transgender, I finally started to understand myself. Even then, I felt so foreign, and I didn't know who to listen to. These days, I am mostly happy with who I am, as a female. It is still a struggle as there are many negative stereotypes still and discrimination. I do still struggle with depression and suicide because of this but it has gotten a lot better with support from my friends and my professors in college (none of them has ever judged me, in fact accepted me as female and used such pronouns). I am glad kids these days have programs like this so they are taught at a younger age. If you ever see a GSA or any organization that helps LGBT youth, helps prevent LGBT suicides, please please please help out. Please don't let programs like these die off.
To anyone who has something against this. I just have to say is, scientific research has shown people who are gay or transgender have parts of their brain develop into the opposite sex, or forms into something in between. This has been done through many double blind studies on the brain on bodies donated to science. Both straight and gay individual's brains have been studied in both male and females. Similar studies have been done for transgender individuals. It has been found to be 100% true in the brains studied. These parts of the brain form during fetal development due to over or under sensitization of testosterone. Unlike genetics, hormones are not always distributed equally through the body which could lead to changes like this. There is a biological reason for such individuals and nothing can be done to reverse such differences (at least with current technology and neither would it be ethical). Just like skin color, this is a natural variation in both human and animal life (homosexual behavior has been studied in animals too). Just like it is not right for a white man to discriminate against a black man, it is not right to discriminate LGBT individuals. It is not right to discriminate someone just because they are different. This is who someone is, this is how they are formed, developed, and it doesn't affect their quality of life. Who knows? Maybe this is nature's form of birth control. We are in the middle of a population crisis. So who are you to judge? As Russel Peters once said "We could sure use a few in India right now."
Black and white process of the photo above.
The State Farm Stand at the event.
Black and white process of the photo above.
Pleasanton Police
Black and white process of the photo above.
Republican's Booth... (Not a big fan.)
Black and white process of the photo above.
San Francisco Police Department
Black and white process of the photo above.
Life music performance.
Black and white process of the photo above.
People at the event.
Black and white process of the photo above.
People at the event.
Black and white process of the photo above.
Food Trucks
Black and white process of the photo above.
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