The great, positive, uplifting thing about Pride and LGBTQ events is the sheer love and grace and sense of nurture. There was a Pride parade today in Louisville and people were laughing, smiling, hugging, holding hands, greeting one another, rainbows, colors, beauty, joy, singing, fun... welcome, welcome, welcome!
And this beautiful crowd of people? They were young and old and black and white and all ages and colors in between. They were grandmothers and grandbabies and people with disabilities and their allies and straight and LGBTQ... it was truly the beauty of all the world and diversity. And, as always, there were a handful of protesters - in this case, six white guys, one wearing a Nazi/white power "Jerusalem cross" symbol - gathered in a little knot and shouting down curses and hate. "You're going to hell!" they yelled. "Your church is NO church!" they shouted at me, seeing my church name on my LGBTQ friendly shirt.
Venom, bitterness, hatred, demonization, arrogance. You have to wonder what such groups hope to accomplish by contrasting their messages of hate and bitterness with the love, grace and beautiful joy and welcome messages from the Pride side? WHO would want to be part of that? You can see in one of the photos that, while most people just ignored them and their pathetic little pamphlets of "good news," when people DID accept the pamphlets, they just tore it up. Who needs that sort of hate and villainy? It's just sad and pathetic and I could almost pity them, if they didn't do so much damage in their vengeful arrogance and rage. One last point, a tip for other conservative religionists: If the churches who are opposed to LGBTQ folks just existing and being truly want to try to make a positive impact, they could come and protest the neo-Nazis who are being the face of conservative religiosity on their behalf.
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