Not sure if anyone heard, but my home city of Calgary suffered historical flooding just 2 weeks ago. Several surrounding towns and hamlets were devastated as well .

Something happened over the past two weeks that has given me a lot of hope, surprised me and just made me say wow. Although there was several beyond imaginable happenings over this time period, there is one that stood at the forefront in my mind.

Every 1st and 2nd week of July Calgary plays host to the world with the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede. Some may call it a fair, an exhibition, a giant party. It bills itself as the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth. About 1.2 million visitors plus a year attend the Stampede. Working out to over a 100,000 people a day to visit.

The thing is the Stampede grounds are bordered by the Elbow river, one of the two rivers that flow through Calgary and burst their banks. Above the Stampede, the Elbow was flowing over top of the Glenmore Damn. Needless to say, amongst the 100,000 people evacuated from their homes, the Stampede Grounds were devastated.

There was talk about cancelling the first Stampede in its 101 year history. Something that the great depression, two world wars and numerous other major events could have cancelled the annual party. Just a few days after the flooding, the Stampede announced that they would push ahead with this years Stampede. They would do this without the use of volunteers who would be needed in helping out the communities devastated by the floods. They would use their existing staff and contractors running around the clock. The last thing they wanted to do was take resources, mainly volunteers, away from the community.

Friday morning arrived and 300,000 people attended the Stampede parade the winded its way through downtown Calgary which was also flooded two weeks ago. The grounds then opened and after the parade with only some minor changes due to closures. One of the hardest hit buildings was the Scotiabank Saddledome, our NHL hockey arena that was flooded up to the 13th row of seating and could not open. Four major concerts had to be cancelled.

I spent the past two evenings volunteering down at the Stampede working for a local charity. It was pretty amazing to see the majority of the grounds open again to the visitors only two weeks after the flood.

These images are from last year, but the general idea of the people who attend.

Now for the second of the hope that I mentioned in the title. On 3 different occasions last night, I saw 3 different couples walking down the midway holding hands. All 3 would have been in the 20 to 30 range and very attractive in their jeans, shirts, cowboy hats and boots. One couple even I saw shared a kiss. The thing is all 3 of these couples were two men.

Yes they got some looks from others and I'm sure some behind their backs comments of those gawkers, but they continued on without a worry of being in a predominantly butch tough environment.

When I saw the first one, I thought of pulling out my phone and snapping a picture (probably due to how hot both guys were ) but dismissed it automatically thinking would I snap a picture of a random hetro couple holding hands? Probably not, so decided against it.

I know that Texas has some pretty vibrant gay communities but when I attended the Texas State Fair in Dallas about 8 years ago with 3 other gay guys they had mentioned that there just was some places in Texas that you just don't announce you are gay.

Hopefully someday, more and more this will be a common site across North America. Couples of both sexes being able to publicly show their affections to each others.

If anything, it gave me hope and makes me smile