Carolinian

Issue date: 10/10/06 Section: Life

Media Credit: Brook Taylor Protesting the protestors, NC Pride attendees show their message is one of love.

Normally, queers drive me insane. There's always a larger supply of drama than is necessary and most of us can't be on time to save our lives, but for a little while at the North Carolina Pride Parade and Festival, none of that seemed to matter. We were all one big gay family.

Held in Durham every fall on Duke University's campus, NC Pride is a time for all the letters of the alphabet soup (LGBTQSA…) to be out and proud and to feel free to walk around showing affection to whomever the hell we choose without being subject to prejudice.

Except this year, the event was tainted with prejudice. Across the street from the festival, a group of about a dozen Christian protestors gathered to yell hateful statements and bible verses at the people enjoying the festivities. Normally, I would take the time to look up who these people actually were or what group they represented, but I'm not going to bother to give them the credit they hardly deserve.

It wasn't the presence of religion that bothered me, but rather the type. There were several churches and even a Buddhist organization that had tables set up to spread their messages of peace and inclusion of all kinds of people in their practices. What pissed me off about the protesting jerkoffs is that they did nothing but spew negative and discriminatory statements and actually had the nerve to call what they were saying The Truth.

Well, I believe that truth is subjective. For example, I think sexual encounters between members of the same gender are some of the hottest this planet has ever seen. When I think of two men making out or two women intertwined, I know that whoever calls that unnatural has obviously never experienced the deliciousness of it. I also think that anyone who shows up to protest a fun, peaceful, child-and-puppy-friendly event is a huge douchebag. So, because I and millions of other people believe these statements, they could be understood to be The Truth. The difference between me and the proselytizing protestors is that I understand that we all have the freedom to choose our own truths that actually fit and make sense to us on a personal level.

Continued...

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