Thanks to the Unitarian Universalist church I attend, I was able to participate in my first Pride march, just this past Saturday morning. Note I said "march" and not "parade". I'm told the absence of floats is what makes the semantic difference. Still, from the inside looking out, meaning as I marched, I got to watch the watchers lined up on the sidewalks watching, and quite often cheering, if not me personally then at least everyone in my immediate marching vicinity, it sure seemed like a parade. Whatever you want to call the whole shebang, it disbursed in Voinovich Park, just across the water from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where it gave way to another shebang, with booths and vendors and live music and dancers and drag queens and all kinds of folks taking their turn at the mike on a stage, a fun time had by all. And I really do have to emphasize the "all" part. Despite the best efforts of the DeSantises and Trumps and Boeberts and Taylor Greenes of the world, the existence of LGBTQ people will not be denied, as will neither the existence of non-LGBTQ people who don't mind the existence of LGBTQ people. I couldn't help but walk away, march away, parade away, optimistic.
I'm on the left.
I'm so glad you went Kirk!!!! And glad you had a nice time. I think now more then ever, LGBT folk that never went are now going. I'm also glad you featured some pictures...I love to see the Prides all over the country and see how we are coming out in numbers!
ReplyDeleteAnd the guy on the left is handsome...that must be you!!!
Maddie, because of the one-two punch of the pandemic (which closed the festivities down for a couple of years), and the current, very noisy, occasionally violent, politically-inspired LGBTQ backlash, I was half-expecting it to be no more bigger than a high school pep rally. Instead, it was like Times Square on New Year's Eve but with the sun out and blazing! I was very, very pleasantly surprised.
DeleteAnd I think you're probably right about the anti-LGBTQ mood actually emboldening people to go. I myself saw my presence there as an act of defiance. Obviously, the more people that showed up, the less defiant I felt, but there are worse ways to have your ego deflated.
Way to go, You and the other UUs! Glad you had fun and made a statement all at the same time!
ReplyDeleteDebra, the UU is what got me there when I otherwise wouldn't have gone, so I owe that organization a debt of gratitude. But to be fair, the UU wasn't the only religion represented. In fact, I was told the particular staging area where we waited for the march to begin was reserved for the church groups (as opposed to different staging areas for the corporate sponsors, labor unions, political activist groups, etc.) I saw banners for the Episcopalians, United Church of Christ, the Methodists, several others. My spirituality, such as it is, would not be a good fit for any of those faiths, but I'm sure glad they had people there.
DeleteI love UUs -- great people! Back in the 90s when I lived in Winnipeg, I was a member of the UU church there. Even taught Sunday School for awhile, if you can believe it. I was on the committee that got the church certified as a "Welcoming Congregation" for LGBTQ people. The UUs led the way long before a lot of Christian churches came on the rainbow bandwagon.
DeleteOh, Debra, I have no doubt the UU led the way, especially with no creed (and no probable misinterpretation of that creed) to hold it back.
DeleteSo happy you participated. That's an amazing feeling, isn't it? Our parade was too many huge flatbed trucks. I prefer a march. Much more personal.
ReplyDeleteAmazing is a good word for it, Mitchell. As well as "fantastic", "spectacular" and "awesome", all words I used when talking to my compatriots as I marched.
DeleteThat's good to see and reinforces my opinion that not all Americans are rabid Trumpians, or DeSantises.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, the term "silent majority" sure means something different than when Nixon invoked it in 1968.
DeleteHello Kirk, Glad to see Cleveland looking so colorful and lively with this Pride event. City Hall is a magnificent building, but it is looking a little run down on the outside (perhaps just as well; it is very easy to ruin stone by cleaning it incorrectly). This post makes me miss Cleveland. If I can get back in the near future I will definitely plan a trip downtown.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Jim, if you contrast City Hall with the (I confess to having just now looked up the name) North Point Tower in the background, it may look, as you call it, "a little run down" but that may be because the styles of the two buildings are so disparate. Actually, one of the treats of marching in this parade is I got to take my time looking at all those grand old downtown buildings like City Hall, the Library, Public Auditorium, and of course the Terminal Tower. About the last, the car me and several others came downtown in was parked in the garage underneath Tower City. Returning to that car, we of course had to reenter the Tower building. You pass through these iron-or-brass-or-whatever Art Deco doors that were built in 1930, walk about 20 feet, and suddenly you're in what looks like a suburban shopping mall! The contrast is even more disparate than that of City Hall and North Point Tower.
DeleteAnother point of interest. Our group's staging area was just across from The Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Man, people were climbing all over that thing like it was monkey bars on a playground. What a sight!
HI Kirk,
ReplyDeleteWhat I had said was that I really appreciated what you had to say about your first experience attending a pride march, and the fact that you attended because of your connection to SWUU. Our church has been participating since around 1997. The only thing I took issue with in your post is that instead of saying we don’t mind the existence of LGBTQ individuals, I would say that we celebrate their existence.
You don’t really need to put it in the comment section. It was mostly for you!
Thank you for sharing!
Susan
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ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words, Susan. As you can see, I put those kind words in the comment section anyway. The more comments--heh, heh--the more page-per views.
ReplyDeleteAll kidding aside, Susan, it's proof to my regular readers that I'm an actual human being that exists outside the confines of this blog. Otherwise, they may think I'm just an A.I. generated program.
By the way, Susan, can you spot yourself in that second picture? I see you. The band must have started up right at that moment.
DeleteHi, Kirk!
ReplyDeleteYou're on the left... and so am I. To borrow from James Brown, "Say it loud - I'm woke and I'm proud."
A few days ago, I returned from my short blog break with my last regularly scheduled post in a long while. Effective immediately, I am going off the grid again to begin a much longer hiatus that will last five months. In case you haven't heard, Mrs. Shady and I are working day and night preparing to move 1,000+ miles away from our current home in Florida, leaving behind this so-called "Citidel of freedom" in search of a more favorable climate (the political kind). So long DeSantis - hello deSanta Claus. Goodbye throbbing red state - hello friendly blue state. That's right. The primary reason for our decision to move away is that we can no longer tolerate being surrounded by people who support DeSantis and his "don't say gay," "don't say trans," "don't say black," pro-gun, anti-woke policies. We don't want any part of it, so we are walking our talk, blowing this pop stand and moving back up north where diversity is celebrated and embraced.
So this is my last blogging activity for the next five months. I wish you a safe and happy summer and fall and look forward to reconnecting with you sometime in November when Mrs. S and I are settled in our new home. Take care, good buddy Kirk!
You'll be missed, Shady. Let me know when you're back in action.
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ReplyDeleteOne more parting thought, Shady. I expect the politically-induced ugliness to only intensify once the election season really gets going, but I've found reasons for optimism, or at least not total despair, and hopefully you will too. As AOC says, people are at their nastiest when they're afraid they may be losing the argument. This too shall pass.
DeleteWhile I have been to some Pride activities, I never really marched in a parade. At some point I will.
ReplyDeleteUntil that day, JM, I hadn't either. Any Pride activities would have been either in a bar or a club the night of such an event.
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