We Marched as One
Have you ever been to an event where you
felt a part of a community? Have you ever been part of an event that promoted
tolerance, love, acceptance and equality? I had the opportunity to be at such an
event, last week in fact. I marched in the Indianapolis Pride
parade.
If you have never been to a Pride event,
it is an event which celebrates diversity, inclusion, tolerance and acceptance
with the LGBTQ community and their allies. The acronym LGBTQ stands for:
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Questioning. The word ally
refers to a person, often times not in the LGBTQ community, who believes in
equal rights for all, in marriage, employment, and in the eyes of the law.
.
I had the honor of initiating my status
as an ally last year by marching in my first Pride parade event. It was a
magical day.
I wrote about the event last year:
To be truthful, I had never been to a Pride
event before being involved in last year's parade. It had such an
effect on me that I made a promise to myself to participate in the next year’s
parade. Last weekend I fulfilled my promise.
I could not have known this when I began
the day, yet, as it progressed, there was a definite change in the feeling of the
day, of the parade itself, compared to last year. Last year I felt as if I were an
invited guest to the parade, that we allies were in the parade as guests of the LGBTQ community.
It was an LGBTQ parade, and we allies were welcome to participate. This year
however, it felt like a parade of the entire state.
This year Indiana passed an RFRA law
(Religious Freedom Restoration Act.) Often referred to as a Jim Crow religious
law, the RFRA law made it legal for any business to discriminate against anyone,
based on the stance of a violation in religious beliefs.
Upon the signing of this law, an outcry
arose from people in Indiana about the unjust nature of this law. LGBTQ
community members and allies alike stood up in protest of the law. Soon after,
Indiana became an example of this issue across the country. The state was held
up for scrutiny and ridicule, and our lawmakers who voted for the bill deserved it.
I wrote about my discontent with this
issue….
…as did many others. Celebrities,
convention events, even heads of multi-million dollar corporations threatened
to take their business-and their millions of dollars in revenue-elsewhere.
Individuals in the LGBTQ community stood up to contest the new
law. Many allies, who would not have been affected by this law, also stood up in
protest. It reminded me of the fervor over the right for marriage equality in
Indiana, which had just taken place the year before. Yet this seemed different.
This fight seemed bigger, all encompassing. But that is as it should be. When the rights of some are threatened, all should stand and protest.
.
For nine days there was protest against
the RFRA law, protest which stretched from the steps of the state house to the
social media sites. The hashtag “Boycott Indiana” trended on social media. The
state of Indiana was made a laughingstock. After his embarrassing television
appearances in defense of this law, the governor of Indiana changed the language of the law. It now says that a
business cannot discriminate against anyone for any reason, religious or
otherwise.
The backlash and outcry to the law was
swift and immense. Since the law was changed, the state of Indiana has tried to
recover from the damage done from passing such a law. The estimated billions of
dollars of lost revenue was thankfully just an estimate. Yet the state has lost
millions of dollars in tourism, commerce, and has won a tarnished image of being a
backwards, homophobic state.
The struggle we have gone through as
a state, the issues we fought for as a citizenry, made this year’s Pride
exclusively unique. I did not feel like an invited guest of the LGBTQ community.
Instead, I felt like I was at the Pride parade for the entire state of Indiana.
The day before the event, I wrote on
social media that I was ready for Pride. I felt excited about the event, and wanted to share it. I then got a nasty comment in response. The comment stated that being homosexual is a sin,
that the Pride event is a sin, that anyone that takes part in the Pride is a sinner, and that I would be a candidate for hell fire for going to Pride and marching.
I have to say, I was broadsided by this
comment. I did not think that my innocent comment on social media would make me
a target for a hateful comment such as that. I did not respond to this comment.
However, if I were to respond.……
1.) I do not believe in hell. I believe in
unemployment, I do not believe in hell.
(That is a line from the movie “Tootsie,”
yet in encapsulates my lack of belief of hell.)
2.) If I am going to hell, which I do not believe in, for marching in a
Pride parade, for being an ally, for supporting the LGBTQ community, for
believing in equal rights, and publicly showing so, then so be it. I will have plenty of company.
This year’s Pride parade was wonderful. The number of companies and groups marching increased exponentially
from last year. The contingency I walked in was closer to the front of the
parade, which enabled me to witness more of it. The mayor of Indianapolis was
the grand marshal of the parade. That is the first time in the history of the Pride
parade that a current mayor served as grand marshal.
The Pride parade was not only made up of
the LGBTQ community, but many of its allies. It was heartening to see that
the allies who protested the
RFRA law came to march in the parade in solidarity.
As we began the parade, people lined the parade route on both sides of the street and cheered for us. They hooted and hollered and screamed like we were rock stars. They held out their hands to receive a high five. As we marched, we handed out giveaway items, drank from our bottles of water, and smiled and waved to everyone. I found that I could not stop smiling. Throughout the parade route, which was two miles long, marching in the stifling heat, we smiled. Who would not smile when receiving such love and adulation and support from their community.
The Pride parade was a wonderful event of inclusion
and tolerance. It was not the LGBTQ parade, not “their parade”, not the city’s parade. It was the LGBTQ community’s parade, and an allies parade as well. It was our parade, the entire state’s parade. We marched as one, for equal rights for all of the citizens
of Indiana.
This year’s Pride parade was one for the
record books: 50,000 people attended the Pride parade, and 105,000 people
attended the Pride festival after the parade. I was among them. It was a beautiful day.
I am an ally. I marched to support the
LGBTQ community. And I will be in next year’s Pride. I believe in equal rights, and
I am ready to march for them.
If you are an ally, find your local Pride parade. Go to the parade and lend your support.
I am ready to march for them.
If you are an ally, find your local Pride parade. Go to the parade and lend your support.
We did have
pride. We celebrated pride. It was an LGBTQ parade. It was an ally parade. It was our parade.
And we marched as one.
And we marched as one.
"A View of Pride" by Esperanza Habla
© Esperanza
Habla All Rights Reserved
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