were there religious groups at your pride? (try two)

[kalmn]

[Poll #1586116]


my ass was showing, so i have deleted and recreated, if you're wondering why you're seeing this twice.

there's a blog post going around at the moment, where a christian group went to a pride parade and held up signs apologizing for how other christians had treated them poorly. and i am pleased to see that happened, and i think it doesn't happen enough.

but some people seem so astonished by christians being at pride at all that i am just wondering, do your local churches not come?

there was an entire uu delegation there, i believe, and enormous stickers being handed out saying "lutherans love me" (which is not entirely true, as it's only the elca that i know of and even they are still discussing acceptable career choices for queers at least they were last time i checked).

any hate the sin love the sinner rhetoric gets your comment frozen if not deleted and you possibly banned. fyi.

Comments

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I did not make it to Pride this year, but there's always a group of theist apologists, so I felt safe saying 'yes.'

[rm.livejournal.com]

The people who always support us, cool. What's moving about that blog post is that at least the poster says he was actively homophobic in the past. It's those people showing change is possible that makes it so moving. It's better than waiting for the die-off.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

And the fact that he was apologizing for it, and for the way homophobic churches in general have treated GLBT* folks.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

yeah. the apology was great. i was very pleased to see that.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

I was at Pride with rm, but I got there later than she did, so there may have been other religious groups I didn't see because they were already further along the route.

[littlebutfierce]

There's always loads of religious groups at Pride in NYC. Some of them make oddly specific stickers: I've gotten "God made me Asian & queer" stickers from a church, & they had lots of other combos!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

We had Unitarians, Methodists, Episcopalians, and of course the MCC (gay evangelicals).

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I didn't do Pride this year, just the Dyke March rally.

at Denver Pride there was always some fundamentalist "burn in hell" group stationed along the parade route. Don't remember any groups at the pride fest though.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

I heard Westboro made it to Denver Pride this year, but we didn't see them, we were much further up the parade route and we didn't stick around afterwards.

[jenett]

I wasn't at the local this year, but Twin Cities Pagan Pride has had a booth at Gay Pride for over ten years, and most years has been in Religion Row with a whole bunch of other religious-related groups (UU, Methodist, Lutheran, atheists, among others, and I know I'm forgetting some.)

I really love the conversations that happen when I've been manning the TCPPD booth early in the morning or during the parade when it's quiet.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

I'm very bad at paying attention to the different types of Christian.

I know of the Christians there were UUs, UCCs and Episcopalians at least. Maaaybe Catholics. There are dozens of religious groups which marks so it blurs (WHICH IS AWESOME)

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

hi! i'm pedantic!

some christians are also uu's; not all uu's are christian, and unitarianism is it's own thing, not a branch of christianity.

[/pedant]

(says the atheist who is trying to get off her butt to join the uu church across town...)

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

I am almost constantly confused by religious categories, especially the "is X group christian." I was raised an atheist and I'm not sure if my parents were vague about explaining details, or if I never absorbed it very well. Though I did eventualy figure out that Catholics != Protestants.


Also, the bazillion religious groups which march at Boston Pride don't really make reference to homophobic Christains. They are very "YAY! We love the gays! LGBT people welcome in our congregation!" but they don't say "Sorry about the gay bashing"

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

It's strange. I've never belonged to a congregation that wasn't open and affirming (well, except for the first one, and I wound up writing their O&A document and getting it passed), but I've also never thought that participating in a pride parade would be anything more than self-congratulatory and unwelcome. I'm sure my current (Presbyterian) church does march, because they're huge and have a large stake in the More Light (http://www.mlp.org/) movement and several associated fellowships.

If, in fact, folks don't get tired of hearing it, then the ministry of Christ should clearly be about fighting oppression and being a light of service and healing to the world. That the larger church not only fails to provide these blessings to the GLBT community but is so often an additional source of suffering is nothing short of a disgrace. To the degree that I am able, I apologize for the thoughts and deeds of my brethren that do not live up to the standard that we strive for.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

markgritter and I have been going to a hippie Presby church that does things like giving us free tree seedlings to plant.

I used to think their e-mail list was only for potluck emergencies ("in case you didn't know because you slept in and skipped church! we're having a potluck! so don't miss the potluck! because that's the important part!"). But now I know their e-mail list is for potluck emergencies and to make sure everybody knows what time the bus leaves for Pride. So.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

hahaha! that's fabulous.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Cuuute!

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I didn't go this year, so I don't know which religions were represented. But yes, there usually are LOTS.

I agree, though, the stunning thing was the apology...the "we care enough about our mistakes that we want to fix them. We get that many of you were hurt by the things I did, or that someone like me did."

[snippy]

I dint go (never have, except to the knitting part) and although I only ticked "other judaism" I'm sure there were other kinds of religious groups. I only know about the other judaism because I saw a photo in the Jewish Review.

[j00j.livejournal.com]

I know religious groups commonly participate in Chicago Pride. This year I was in Philly and I got pictures.
metropolitan community church of philadelphia (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87696013@N00/4697128408/)
drexel hill baptist (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87696013@N00/4696500739/)
I think they are methodists (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87696013@N00/4696500183/) since the logo is with these methodists (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87696013@N00/4697133264/) methodists (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87696013@N00/4697132594/). (extra Methodist pictures because I was raised Methodist and the official UMC stance on same-sex marriage and glb clergy annoys me to this day).

[miep.livejournal.com]

"Lutherans love me" may well be true, refering to individual lutherans or churchs, whether or not the elca also loves you.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I failed at ticking the correct boxes, but there are always a variety of churches groups at Toronto Pride. I never remember which ones because I tend not to pay attention to that kind of thing.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

There are MCCs and Unitarians, fer sure. And I've seen some Buddhist and Jewish groups (but I couldn't tell you what flavour of Jewish). We also got a bunch of Raelians for a few years.

[kikibelle.livejournal.com]

Pride's next month here. That said, I know that there will be a big contingent from St. Paul's Cathedral (Episcopal) marching. St. Paul's was on the anti 8 march route, had a large contingent in that march, and passed out water to marchers. I know that there are a lot of churches in town who are very vocal about marrying folks, regardless of the combination of sex/gender of the pair involved, whether the state recognizes it or not.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

I think that if you tried to lump together the various groups that march in the Santa Cruz Pride Parade, religious groups would be the largest category. I'll make a tally next year if I manage to remember having said I would. :-)

[miirica.livejournal.com]

We were at the same Pride, so I probably don't need to fill in the survey.
One thing that I found disconcerting this year - city allowed the anti-GLBT folks to be IN the park. A friend of mine spent the better part of one morning standing across the path from a Christian who wanted to save all us queers from our evil ways. My friend did atheist street theater saving us all from Christianity, in response.