Ride to Pride

Today’s Ride to Pride is a slideshow of pictures from last week’s Pride Parade in Salt Lake City, UT in which nearly 300 straight Mormons marched in support of their LGBTQ brothers and sisters.   I asked participants to submit pictures of the march and here’s what I got.   What a beautiful sight.   I never thought I’d say this (and will likely never say it again):   “I wish I lived in Utah today.”   ;)

Here are some comments that were emailed to me along with the photos:

From Sherri Park:

My husband, daughter and I wanted to march but I was a little fearful that we would not get a good reception. There have to be  a lot of hurt feelings among this group.  I honestly thought that people might jeer us or spit on us but nothing like that happened.

I    was concerned because so few signed up to march at the beginning. It took a few weeks to get the word out.

Erika and Kendall and others did a fabulous job. The Miller family had the great idea of handing out suckers with “Love One Another” stickers on them. They asked for help to put  on the stickers  so several of us went over to their house and helped them do that last week.

The  numbers  who  committed to  march rose very slowly on Facebook  but really took off on Friday. It was still unclear as to how many would actually show up.

We were supposed to wear church clothes.  So it was easy  to find our group when we reached the assigned spot–it  was  the least  colorful.  It was a relief to see that someone else actually came.

I made friends with some gals who were marching with a different group and they agreed to pose for pictures with us.

Before we marched, we sang the song, “Love One Another” and Jared Miller led us in prayer. Dustin Lance Black, the  Grand Marshall,  walked into the group to shake hands and thank us for coming. We went out to cheers and applause which continued along the whole route.

I was eager to hand out the suckers. I use a walker when I walk long distances but I pretty much abandoned it and my husband pushed it along. He is the one in the red scooter. I didn’t notice anyone crying but they told me women were openly weeping.

I think this was a once in a lifetime event and we are so glad we did it.

From Katie Henderson:

I felt like I participated in one of the most important things I’ve ever done today. I wasn’t expecting it to be so emotional. I got my rainbow flag, waved it in the air, and as soon as we started walking, heard the cheers, I just went all Relief Society and bawled the rest of the time. People watching and waving were moved, some of them were crying. You could tell which people there had been personally hurt by the actions of church leaders, members, and rhetoric in the past. I was trying to hold it in until I saw a woman just crying and shaking as she waved. We locked eyes and fell into each others arms, crying. She said, “Thank you, Thank you,” and I nodded, I couldn’t even say anything.

It wasn’t just the reactions and responses from the parade-spectators. As we were walking I turned and looked at all of us Mormons. I had this powerful feeling of kinship and community, even though I only knew a handful by name. I have to say, I’ve never felt “the pure love of Christ,” towards strangers to the degree I did today. I hope never to forget this.  

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