Soapbox

O Wacky Day

Well I took part in a church service at the request of my friends Marj (who was preaching) and Byron in a public park today…and ended up doing the Gay Pride Parade too, How could I not, after all that happened?

I was a little reluctant to get into all this today, but I promised Marj I would sing with her and didn’t want to let her down. So there I was, standing in front of a little gazebo in Goodale Park with a hundred or so people, drinking an Arizona iced tea and watching the interfaith gay-friendly service start, and I noticed a bunch of big guys come walking up with these shirts that said in big red letters: GOT AIDS YET?

Oh great- the goon squad. I had been warned about them, but we expected them at the parade, not the service. I mean this was just church! They set up several posts about 50 feet back from the gazebo and put up their big banners that said thing like “Execute child-molesting faggot priests!” and “You are an abomination before God!” and “Aids isn’t a disease- it’s a cure”. What makes people want to do this, I wondered? Everybody tried to ignore them. The cops were watching and said they’d step in if they got too disruptive since we had a permit and they didn’t.

A few minutes later I noticed movement in the crowd and the biggest guy with the “AIDS isn’t a disease” sign was trying a flanking maneuver to get up to the stage from the side. And Nancy Snyder was stepping right in front of him.
Nancy weighs all of about 100 pounds soaking wet. She and her daughter were in Indian Maidens with me and Katie, so I have known her for some time. Like the man in front of the tank in Tianamen square, Nancy moved wherever he moved. She didn’t say a word or even look at him, just put herself between him and the clergy on the stage. He could shove past her easily, but he didn’t. At least not yet.

I handed my iced tea to Byron and walked over to her without even thinking, really. I mean, what else could I do? She’s a friend of mine, for crying out loud! One woman against all that hate? No, two of us now. I took her hand and she smiled at me and we stood in front of him. We moved where he moved and did not let him pass.
Suddenly Gene- all 6’2″ of him appeared on Nancy’s other side, and the man stopped, flummoxed. On the other side of the crowd I saw another protester trying the same move, but the crowd was watching and 3 or 4 people stepped in front of him silently and stopped him.

The fellow behind us just radiated hostility. He began shouting “You are an abomination!”
“God hates you!” another shouted. The human wall just grew larger with every word they spoke until there were 20 or more people protecting the service. We stood with bowed heads and tried to ignore them while the police moved behind him and asked him to be quiet.
“I dissent!” he shouted. “Dissent is a basic civil liberty in this country!” Ignoring for a moment the irony of a reactionary homophobe lecturing ME about civil liberties, I began to sing very quietly.
“I love you Lord…and I lift my voice…to worship you, oh my soul, rejoice…”
I saw Nancy break into a big grin and she and Gene joined in. “Take joy my God, in what you hear, may it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.” Our whole line took it up, quietly, and the guy shut up at last.
Then the communion started and goon-boy saw his opportunity when several people left “the wall” to get in line. He made a quick flanking manouver and tried to rush the lines. Nancy and I were faster and got in front of him, now just a few feet from the service. The line reformed, larger than ever, and slowly began stepping backward, herding the man out of range again. I started singing the first song that came into my mind- “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”

I don’t know what music was planned for communion, but that was the song that we all sang. The pastors came along the line and served us and thanked us as we held our posts. 2 park volunteers with trash-picker poles came up and stood with us and took communion with us, which was neat.

Finally the police made the protesters step back, disassemble their banners and with much grumbling, leave that part of the park. No one acknowledged their leaving any more than we had their coming, but I was really jazzed. I mean, I felt like there was a reason I was there today!
Oh, and we sang a benediction, and I had the last verse solo. Marj had told me to jazz it up a bit, so I just opened my mouth and let rip. I was told afterwords by several people that I was excellent.
So after all that, how could I not get on the truck with Nancy and sing church songs in the Pride Parade?

That was real hoot, let me tell you! There was the whole gamut of cars and floats and all sorts of people. There were more than a few churches represented: we had mikes and sang all the up-beat songs we could think of. “Oh Happy Day” seemed to be the crowd favorite. There were various gay-friendly politicians, civic organizations, bars, clubs, drag queens in rainbow bikinis and tiaras, leather clad women on motorcyles called “Dykes on Bikes”…when the parade first formed up we were in line right behind the condom float dancing and tossing condoms and advocating safe sex… but we pulled out of line and let a classic car group go before us and pulled in with another church’s van.

And there were thousands and thousands of people!! The parade itself was so big one could be forgiven for thinking that most of the gay people in Columbus were on the floats, but no! They lined the streets, 5 and 6 deep in many places, for blocks, cheering and singing along as we came by. There were hardly any hate-mongers at the parade: guess they concentrated on the church service this year. We sang “Let there be Peace on Earth” and “Jesus Loves You” and waved when we passed them.

It was sort of my swan song with the whole group, and it was fun. I saw over a dozen former New Creation people, some of whom I haven’t seen in years, so that was really nice. One guy greeted me by name and I recognized his face but just couldn’t come up with his name as we talked. He said “Gosh- I hardly recognized you without the kids! They were, what, 10 and 7 when I saw you last?!” so its not surprising that I didn’t remember him.

Wow- 2 demonstrations in a month for me! That’s my limit for the summer I think…but we’ll see. (I’m pretty jazzed about this Bush nazi ad thing, and might have just one more demonstration in me!) There were some people from WOSU there filming the service and the parade. I learned later that they are making a documentary about the whole thing, so the “love wall” may someday be on PBS. Who knows.
I couldn’t help but think that if more straight people saw what some nuts are willing to do to a church service, for goodness’ sake, and how we dealt with it, they would have less sympathy for the homophobes and be less inclined to see the gay folks as being the “Wrong” ones. I hope so.

While I was on the line, a few words started running through my head when I was trying to ignore their nastiness. After the service I got a pen and a scrap of paper and wrote this song of peaceful resistance to hate.

I do not hear the hateful voices-
All I hear is love.
I do not feel the fists of anger,
For all I feel is love.

I do not see the doors closed before me-
All I see are the arms of love.
I will not speak in rage against them-
My only word is love.

I do not seek to change the world-
I only want to bring the word love.
I don’t believe there is peace without justice-
All I believe is love.