Where can you mix pride with protest, absolute joy and sadness, those outside of the church and those within? On Saturday 16th July approximately 19,000 people marched on the route (shown right) to celebrate the wonder of whom God truly and wonderfully made.
It was a time of value, of being with people on the streets, as a protest for equality and one of God’s love.
What’s Pride?
We recalled that Pride started as a protest, and that voice should still be clearly heard, above and beyond #Pride. There was a wonderful confusion of flags, including the ‘new’ one to commemorate the 50 years of Pride in London. Here’s some afterthoughts from London 2018.
There were political speeches from Patrick Harvie, a government minister, members from the Liberal and Labour Party, but none from the Scottish Conservative party. This may, in part, be due to the confusion with recent quotes from the plethora of candidates to be Prime Minister, as they vie for position, apparently moving as the ‘wind’ changes.
New Emphasis
The emphasis this year at Mardi Gla was upon bisexuality and their inclusion as well as the transgender community. In fact, Glasgow’s Pride Mardi Gla has become the first major Pride festival to have bisexuality as its theme. One group rarely included in discussions , the other now being excluded.
Celebration and Protest
As the march weaved across Glasgow, passers-by waving from the path and from windows along the route, there was a peaceful mood of celebration. On occasion, mainly at the start and end of the route, a group of Christian protesters denounced those on the march as deluded, that they had been ill informed and would ‘go to Hell’.
As I spoke with bystanders and there was a clear response – “this wasn’t the voice of the church“. Albeit from a small subset of the LGBTQ community it was an encouragement that many saw the church had changed, is changing: those outside of the church could see that their perception of God was one of inclusion and love. There was even a counter counter protest from the Metropolitan Community Church, which was very well received.
Interfaith Network
On the march, I joined the Glasgow LGBTQ Interfaith Network, those from Christians, Muslims, Pagans, Sikhs, Hindus and more: their work supported by Linda Haggerstone, a fellow honorary chaplain at the University of Glasgow.
It was a time of value, of being with people on the streets, as a protest for equality and one of God’s love.
God made us Fabulous
It was very interesting