A Man Offered ‘Dad Hugs’ At Pittsburg Pride To Kids Rejected By Their Parents
A man, namely Scott Dittman, went to the Pittsburg Pride and gave people “dad hugs” and touched so many people by his emotional embraces.
After learning from a friend about the LGBT+ Advocacy group Free Mom Hugs, Dittman thought it would be nice to give out ‘dad hugs’ too.
“My first thought was well if you had a hundred moms and a hundred dads presented with a child that identified with this population, my thought was that the moms overall would likely be more accepting so possibly dad hugs could be even more needed,” Dittman told ‘CNN’.
He created a shirt writing “Free Dad Hugs” and headed off to the Pittsburg annual gay pride. Dittman said he never expected to make such a great impact. While talking to ‘CNN’ he reeled a woman running toward him with tears in her eyes and hugged him while “thanking him profusely.”
“There's this young woman just with tears in her eyes and she threw her arms around me and thanked me and thanked me and thanked me,” Dittman said. “Obviously I wasn't gonna be the one to let go first. But that's when I realized that even though we headed down there to spread some joy and have some smiles and things like that that it was maybe going to turn out a little bit differently.”
The woman told Dittman that a switch flipped inside her when she saw him offering hugs, he said. “It struck her from being in this kind of joyous festival kind of thing to just needing a dag hug, I suppose,” Dittman continued.
In a Facebook post after the parade, he encouraged parents to love and accept their children.
“Imagine that your child feels SO LOST FROM YOU that they sink into the arms of a complete stranger and sob endlessly just because that stranger is wearing a shirt offering hugs from a dad. Think of the depths of their pain. Try to imagine how deep those cuts must be,” he wrote. “Please don't be the parent of a child that has to shoulder that burden. I met WAY too many of them, of all ages, today.”
Read related myGwork articles here:
First Ever Muslim Pride In The U.K. Has Set A Date
Why UK Black Pride is Necessary
How Organisations and Employees Can Contribute to Pride in a Meaningful Way
New York City Pride Announced 2020 Theme
Keep up to date with the latest myGnews
