Today’s Ride to Pride comes to us from Ren, who has done another Ride for us and has shared some of her amazing photography with us as well (see here and here). Ren writes:
Hi, I’m Ren. I live in Minneapolis, MN and love it here. I’m a Mormon convert (twice over) and blog at Key Lime Piety and Minnecentric. Twin Cities Pride parade is a major event with over 100 groups participating and around 125K spectators. I walk in it every year but this year was a first I did so with fellow Mormons. John Gustav-Wrathall organized the walk and blogged about his thoughts on the event. The parade goes through the heart of our theatre district down Hennepin Avenue and ends near Loring Park where the Pride fest is. That’s my neighborhood.
There’s a lot of chatter online about whether Mormons marching in Pride is a good or bad thing. My take is, at least it’s a start.
![1-busstop](https://dovesandserpents.org/wp-content/gallery/minnesota-pride/1-busstop.jpg "My ride started with a bus down Nicollet Ave aka \\"Eat Street\\" to the parade staging area.")
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Great pictures. Love this: “We do not believe it is just to mingle religious influence with civil government. . .”
I noticed that sign, too. Yes, indeed. These pictures make me so emotional. I’ve read debates about whether or not marching as a Mormon is helpful, and I think there are a lot of perspectives on the issue. For me, I think it is a powerfully therapeutic way to show love, insist on love, and in a way show the leaders of the LDS church that we think for ourselves on this issue.