The Pride Festival kicked off in Loring Park Saturday. There were live bands, food and thousands of people. It's now the third-largest gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender celebration in the country.

But there was some trouble there Saturday night.

Minneapolis Police arrested three people from Hayward, Wis. for trespassing. An amateur photographer named Aaron Bogle gave WCCO-TV video of a father, mother and son being arrested.

For 11 years, Brian and Doris Johnson have passed out free Bibles at the festival.

This year, they were not allowed to have a booth. Pride paid to rent the whole park and that gave them the right to choose which vendors they allowed in.

The Johnsons said they are born-again Christians and they believe homosexuality is a sin.

Police said they were each being held Saturday night on a $50 bail or a $300 bond.



Gay's Jail Christian Family


From my understanding these people were in the wrong. They were not invited this year. I'd heard serveral Christians complain about how their freedom of speech was being censored. Was it? Do we have to listen to someone preach or talk to us about something that doesn't intrest us? Does someone have the right to break said rules so they can be heard?

Where does the line get drawn?

Their freedom of speech was not being censored. No, we don't have to listen to someone preach or talk to us about something that doesn't interest us. No, someone doesn't have the right to break said rules so they can be heard. The line gets drawn by the equal rights and property of others.

So why do they have thier underpants in such a bunch then?

I think if they rented the whole park, they should be able to choose who gets booths.

However, whether we agree with them or not, there are laws in place that address full non-discriminatory access to public events. The sponsor may have been legally required to sell the Christians a booth. I don't think we have enough information. Was the event itself open to the public or only open to a private membership?

It seems from the news commentary that by renting the entire park for the event, the event organizers held the right to restrict vendor access.

In the reverse, I would expect that the rights of a Christian group holding an event under the same circumstances would be afforded the same rights (from atheist groups, GLBT groups, other faith traditions, hate groups, etc.). The legal question is whether the city has the right to temporarily transfer public access rights to a private organizer like this. I would suspect that the courts would rule in favor of this type of accomodation, as long as all groups would be afforded the same rental rights.

Still, the Johnson's could have set up on public property across from the park without being harassed or arrested. Anyway, a sad commentary on the times where confrontation trumps dialogue. --Steve--

Toronto also had its Pride event culminating Pride Week this past weekend. Toronto's is the third largest such event in the world.

Marching in this year's parade were floats from the Anglican Church of Canada, The United Church of Canada, The Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. All told 164 registered groups marched, and those included the Liberal Party of Canada, The New Democratic Party of Canada (and it's Leader), and the Mayor of Toronto. Our fire department sent out a pumper with a couple of gay firefighters who got the crowd, shall we say, a little wet. That was the biggest spray gun ever!

But here's the point. At our festival, everyone is welcome. We welcome those who love us and those who hate us. There were, as I pointed out above, Christians in the parade. There were also Christians with protest pickets lining the parade route and wandering among the 1 million revelers. Nobody fought with anybody else. There were those with other agendas. But all were welcome, and everybody behaved. Amazing, with so many people, don't you think?

From what I got they (the Christians) were there last year but for one reason or another they were not asked to come. Perhaps they didn't wish to be told how being gay is wrong. The article stated that because they rented the whole park it was open but to those they didn't want there.

It's unfortunate that this is being viewed as a "Gay vrs Christian" thing.
The Johnson's were trespassing in an area that was legally reserved.
They broke the law which governs the land and are now subject to the penalties.
If they believe they were serving a higher law, that's all well and good and was their choice. Either way they were illegally distributing literature.

You won't believe me, but I long for a world in which we're not afraid of each other's literature. Or each other's company.

It sounds good to me.

I believe you.

It is the fear of the unknown, of what is different, that keeps us apart.
I long for the company.