Men kiss under a rainbow umbrella during a gay pride parade
(AP Photo/Sebastian Castaneda)
Saturday’s Gay Pride parade in Floyd was part of a weekend of such parades around the country.
Notes The Associated Press:
Gay Pride parades are set to step off around the world, in cities large and small.
In the U.S., celebrations are planned Sunday from coast to coast: in New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, as well as many smaller cities. Festivals were held Saturday in France, Spain, Mexico and Peru.
New York marchers will commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots, which are credited with launching the modern gay rights movement in 1969. San Francisco’s event is in its 44th year.
The U.S. festivities come amid an eventful year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the statute that denied federal recognition to same-sex marriages and cleared the way for gay couples to wed legally in California. Since then, seven more states legalized same-sex marriage, boosting the total to 19, plus Washington, D.C.
While those who support gay rights marched from the Post Office to Lineberry Park in Floyd Saturday, opposing views were expected from the pulpits of several county churches along with messages declaring homosexuality a “sin” and a practice allegedly prohibited by “the word of God.”
Which reminds us of a case before former Circuit Judge W. Southall Jordan in the Floyd courthouse back in the 1960s. Jordon heard a defense lawyer declare his client’s innocence with claim that the actions were condoned in the Bible.
Jordan didn’t hesitate. Banging his gavel, he declared that “two wrongs don’t make a right” and found the defendant guilty.
“The Bible is many things,” Jordan said after the trial, “but it is not always right.”