Tag: pride parade

June rambling: It goes on

zhuzh

Belief in God in the U.S. Dips to 81%, a New Low

Life: It goes on

In 6-3 rulings, SCOTUS strikes down New York’s concealed-carry law

Also, SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade; I wrote about it here and here.  Now what? Kelly is not happy either.  And Clarence Thomas believes SCOTUS should reconsider contraception and same-sex marriage rulings. Plus, can we trust tech companies to protect privacy?

Will the Great Salt Lake stay great?

The detectives hunting for underwater volcanoes

Trump administration embraced herd immunity via mass infection — The strategy likely contributed to many preventable deaths

Feds Aim to Slash Nicotine

How are autism and Alzheimer’s related?

John Green: On Disease

The Healing Power of ‘I Don’t Know’ 

Hank Green: Are You Eating a Credit Card Every Week?

Tech Monopolies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Why the US military is listening to shrimp

The Texas Republican Party goes off the deep end

US travelers now need a visa to enter Japan

The surprise hiatus of the band BTS is sending ripples throughout the South Korean economy

The Monkeys and Parrots Caught Up in the California Gold Rush

Orphan Trains: A Brief History and Research How-to

Creative with your catchphrases

Pride parade.TU

June 12, 2022, Pride Parade, Lark St between State and Lancaster Sts, Albany, NY. The car that was the basis of the First Presbyterian Church Albany float stalled out; this was the improvisation. Photo by Jay Zhang, first used by the [Albany] Times Union. Used with permission.

Lessons from Fictional Fathers

PBS NewsHour commentator Mark Shields dies at age 85

James Rado, Co-Creator of Groundbreaking ‘Hair’ Musical, Dies at 90

Jon Stewart: acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Award

Anna “Brizzy” Brisbin -History of Voiceover

Amy Schumer, Selena Gomez, Tracee Ellis Ross, and THR’s Comedy Actress Roundtable

50 years of The Price Is Right 

William Henry Cosby Jr. lost a civil trial

The Insane Plan to Lift NYC’s Palace Theatre

The smile: a history

The Ultimate Guide to Dream Interpretation

A surprise response from Professor O’Neill

 How to ‘Zhuzh’ Up Your Vocabulary; zhuzh is NOT a word I want to see in Wordle

How to prepare for hurricane season 2022 and avoid storm-related scams

8 Ways to Spot Counterfeit Money

Now I Know: The Fired Employee Who Got The Last Laugh and  When Shouting “Cr*p!” is a Wish Come True and Capture the Flag, updated and A Fishy Train Line That Goes Nowhere

About Me (kinda sorta)

Mark Evanier answers my question about mandated representation in cartoon animation in the 1980s. “Doing the right thing for the wrong reason”

Kelly did linkage and wrote about Judy Garland, mentioning moi

I’ve been doing that Sunday Stealing, which fillyjonk also did here and here and here and here. Kelly did the same here and here

MUSIC

Purple Haze – Joy Oladokun 

Rapsodie Espagnol by Maurice Ravel

This Must Be The Place – Ondara 

Espana by Emmanuel Chabrier

Where Grace Abounds – Julius Rodriguez 

NPR Tiny Desk concert with the current off-Broadway production of Little Shop Of Horrors

Freedom – Jon Batiste

 Reclamation – Brandee Younger 

God Bless The Child – Melanie Charles

Hustle (Live) – Sons Of Kemet 

Communion In My Cup  Tank And The Bangas ft. The Ton3s

2022 Pride Parade: more important than ever

cardboard jesus

2017
2017

The 2022 Pride Parade occurred in Albany, NY, on June 12. When I came to church, I could see Molly, the youth coordinator, and others decorating a car. I’ve participated, off and on, at least since 2007. (COVID put the kibosh on the event in 2020, e.g.)

By 2010, I dragged along my daughter, but by 2017, and surely long before, she was participating independently.

In my 2013 post, I worried about an antigay backlash that I thought was always around the corner. I felt that there was a certain unfortunate “We made it to the mountaintop” thinking in conversations. And after the SCOTUS affirmed marriage equality in 2016, it would be reasonable to assume that the battle had been won, or at least nearly so.

The last six years have proven that to be anything but true. Antigay violence, book banning, and your basic bigotry, often in the false name of Christianity, have distressed me.

Corporate America doesn’t know what to do. State Farm was criticized after celebrating Pride and then dropping a program supporting LGBTQ books in schools. Disney’s initial response to Florida’s Don’t Say Gay distressed its employees. As the company became less cowardly, Florida governor Ron DeSantis decided, with the state legislature’s support, to punish Disney (and probably Florida taxpayers as well.)

Not according to plan

After church, my daughter and I went to find our church’s car/float, walking on the sidewalk in the opposite direction of the parade. Finally, we discovered the car stuck at its launch location. The car’s starter failed to engage. Worse, the two people waiting were stuck there because they couldn’t even close the windows.

But I was told that one of our group took our cardboard Jesus, put it on a hand cart, and walked it through the parade. (A photo appears on the Times Union website Were You Seen. It is near the end of the 2022 Albany Capital Pride Festival and Parade album.) Coincidentally, I saw photographer Jay Zhang driving behind the parade. I thought he needed help getting out of the park, but he said he needed to get a few shots of the parade; he took more than “a few.”

I briefly marched with the Albany Public Library contingent, because LIBRARY, before stopping back at my church so my wife could take me to the train station. Perhaps my daughter would come with us to see me off? Nah, she hung out with her friends at the Festival in Washington Park after the march, which, BTW, was fine with me.

Pandemic postpones Pride Parade

Check out the Congressional Scorecard

Pride paradeThey have postponed the Pride Parade in Albany this year, due to the pandemic, which is :still going on in the US, people.

I do hope the parade gets rescheduled. LOVE that our church, as part of the Albany Presbytery, has participated regularly. I’ve marched myself, especially when the event’s been on a Sunday. Also, June 7 was More Light Sunday at First Pres, and we were treated to songs by the Albany Gay Men’s Chorus. It was recorded from a previous year, of course, but it was still a joy to experience.

The Wikipedia has a “list of Christian denominations affirming LGBT.” GayChurch.org allows one to find a gay-affirming Christian congregation. That site also addresses the topic of understanding about “homosexuality and the Bible”, including a discussion of the interpretation of various so-called “clobber” passages.

Related: William Love, the Albany Episcopal bishop, continues to oppose “the national church’s embrace of same-sex marriage.” He says it boils “down to conflicting interpretations of church law and doctrine.”

Meanwhile, I’ll settle for looking at historic photos of the New York City parades.

Politics and tricks

No question, the NEED to march continues to be great. LGBTQ rights are “getting chipped away by the people who the administration put in power and their policies.” In honor of Pride Month, it would seem, the regime has reversed access to health protections for transgender people.

The United Nations calls for an end to debunked anti-LGBTQ conversion ‘therapy’ practices, which still exist in parts of the United States.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court rules existing civil rights law protects gay and lesbian workers. “The decision said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate because of a person’s sex, also covers sexual orientation.” “It is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that person based on sex,” Neil Gorsuch wrote. If a boss fires a man for being attracted to other men, he continued, then “the employer discriminates against him for traits or actions it tolerates in his female colleague.”

BTW, you should check out the Congressional Scorecard. “The Human Rights Campaign wants to provide you with information on how your elected officials have voted on issues of equality.” My member of Congress, Paul Tonko, got 100% for the 115th Congress, I’m pleased to note.

Weird. I almost forgot that the United States had its first openly gay Presidential candidate in Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, IN. He dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination on March 1, after he fared poorly in the South Carolina primary. March 1 was also before the massive COVID-19 shutdown. It was only three and a half months ago; why does it feel like ancient history?

In any case, the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights, like so many other fights, continues.

The Lydster: Religious Ally at the Pride Parade

Most of the people on the parade route absolutely LOVE the fact that the faith community is so active in the parade

One of the MANY things I’ve worried about as a parent is, while trying to instill values, trying not to turn the Daughter into some sort of philosophical mini-me. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to work.

Five or six years ago, when the LGBTQ Pride Parade was on Sunday, as it is this year, I took her along. I’m sure the marching and seeing all the people along the parade route was FUN. But was it really her choice?

The great thing about her getting older is that now I know she gets to make decisions for herself. Not only did she help decorate the church’s van, she helped led the Presbyterian Connection contingent.

When she was younger, she knew a friend with two mommies and thought that was fine. Now, though, she’s more aware of the bullying and discrimination that still takes place against LGBTQ people.

And she knows the world is not always a safe place. Back when we left the Tulip Festival in Albany’s Washington Park in May, she noted the concrete barriers at certain locations. These were deployed, no doubt, to try to prevent to ward off people using motor vehicles as weapons, as has happened in Nice, France; London, and elsewhere.

She expressed surprise that such measures weren’t used in the Pride Parade, given the increased backlash against equality. Indeed, during the parade, I’ve been long been wary of the intersection of Madison Avenue and Lark Street, where the religious resistance against the parade appears strongest. I waved at the guy with the giant 10 Commandments sign, but he scowled back.

Conversely, most of the people on the parade route absolutely LOVE the fact that the faith community is so active in the parade. And not just the Presbyterians, but the UUs and quite a few others.

It’s local election season, and a ton of political candidates actually led the parade.

I mentioned to one of our church members, who is gay, and suggested that I think the Pride Parade is more important than ever. He agreed, though five years ago, he thought the time might be right to abandon the event.

Next year, should the Daughter participate, I’ll know it is entirely her decision, based on her proudly wearing an Ally rainbow button.

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