Making strides with Pride

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the time this column is printed, Pride Week in St. John’s will be winding down.

Over the past week, a number of community events were organized, including a flag-raising, bonfire, bowling, movies and a number of entertainment events at the local LGBT bar.

The culmination of the week is later today with the Pride Parade and a family picnic, both occurring in and around Bannerman Park.

I am particularly impressed to note that the majority of the events organized are open to people of all ages, which means that young gays and lesbians are able to participate along with adult members of the community, providing the opportunity for both groups to connect and build a stronger community.

With the emphasis on bullying that has been so prevalent in the news over the past year, it is especially important that we make an effort to ensure that gay and lesbian youth are accepted fully within our own community as well as the community at large.

When I see teenagers talking to reporters about looking forward to participating in Pride, I realize that we have truly moved forward from the experience I had when I was their age, and it makes all the effort of all activists in this province over the past few decades worthwhile.

This does not mean that we can sit back and rest on our laurels, because there is still much work that needs to be done in the world.

In my last column, I focused on a positive story of growth and acceptance within a Christian community, but this month I am forced to recognize that in some Christian communities, especially within the United States, the situation is the exact opposite.

Consider the videos that were posted on the Internet in May of sermons being delivered from the pulpit. Pastor Sean Harris (Fayetteville, N.C.) recommended roughing up a limp-wristed son if the boy acts effeminately. Pastor Charles Worley (Maiden, N.C.) wants gays and lesbians rounded up and isolated behind an electric fence so they won’t breed. Pastor Curtis Knapp (Seneca, Kansas) said the government should just kill them all, according to biblical commandment.

Perhaps the saddest, yet most disturbing, video came from the Apostolic Truth Taber- nacle in Greensburg, Ind., and featured a three-yearold boy singing “Ain’t no homo going to make it to heaven,” a video which made it around the world on the Internet. I am relatively certain that the boy had no idea what he was singing, but the idea that having a child spread such a message in a church is truly horrifying.

By posting it on the Internet, it will be there forever and we cannot know what the future holds for this boy. Can you imagine the anguish he may one day face if, when he becomes an adult, someone very close to him turns out to be gay or if he is gay?

We have worked so hard in recent years to teach gay and lesbian youth to not loathe who they are; it is hard enough when condemnation comes from adults, but to hear such condemnation come out of the mouth of a child can be devastating. That such a thing is happening in a Christian church which is supposed to teach the love of God is difficult to fathom in this day and age.

While I realize that these examples are extreme and I do not believe that they reflect the mainstream of Christianity in the United States, the fact that they exist at all in 2012 and that such things are still being said in the pulpits of some churches reveals to me why events such as Gay Pride continue to be so necessary.

The children who are being subjected to such negative messages need to see the positive and loving atmosphere that is present during Pride.

I commend The Telegram for making the launch of Pride Week in St. John’s a front-page story in Tuesday’s edition and for devoting the entire second page to written and photographic coverage of this event.

I was even more impressed to read the story of 16-year-old Megan Webb, who attended the flag-raising along with her supportive mother, Dale Johnson, and the accompanying photo on page two of mother and daughter in a loving embrace. This is what is truly needed as an anodyne to some of the hateful videos on the Internet, and it clearly represents what Pride is really all about.

I hope you all had a happy and loving Pride Week.