(National Catholic Reporter. Jim McDermott).
I recently attended Queens Pride, the Pride parade in the New York borough of Queens. Queens is actually the largest borough in New York City by area, 109 square miles, and the second biggest by population at about 2.2 million. And yet what was most noticeable about the parade was its small-town feeling. Rather than some kind of summer variation on Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, this was a Main Street USA-kind of affair, filled with LGBTQ marching bands, cheerleaders, street performers, politicians, community groups and even the Girl Scouts. Pride parades have become a contentious issue in some quarters. In fact, just the idea of Pride is getting blasted by some these days as somehow offensive, including by some Catholics. I find that opposition so baffling. Who denounces a group for celebrating their community and its history, or for advocating for their civil rights? Could you imagine a city shutting down a St. Patrick’s Day parade? A San Gennaro feast? The Puerto Rican Day parades which also occur in June across the nation? (Boricua de Corazón!)