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Top 9 social media themes from Charlotte Pride 2016

After the parade had dissipated on day two of the Charlotte Pride Festival & Parade that overtook South Tryon Street uptown this weekend, crowds milled about checking out vendor booths, eating snow cones or fried food. People watched a pole-dancing performance. They wore rainbow capes and rainbow socks and shirts with declarations like “YOU CAN PEE NEXT TO ME.” A guy wore a sparkly pink tutu. A tiny dog wore a rainbow tutu.

The street felt at ease and layered with good spirits.

It wasn’t that surprising, seeing as a record number of faith groups showed up for the parade earlier that afternoon, as churches represented more than 10 percent of the 135 participating groups. And overall, parade participation rose to 3,300 people this year, from 2,500 last year. Take that, HB2.

On Instagram, more than 6,600 images have been hashtagged #charlottepride, and more than 260 images hashtagged #charlottepride2016.

The top nine of my favorite social media themes:

(1) Love

(2) Defiance

(3) Showing skin with pride

(4) No shame

(5) Support by food

(6) Prideful pooches

(7) Pride swag

(8) Huge participation

(9) Truth

Photo: Katie Toussaint

This story was originally published August 21, 2016 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Top 9 social media themes from Charlotte Pride 2016."

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