I finally did it! My wife and I have said for years we’d love to attend the annual Gay Pride Parade in Indianapolis. But there always seemed to be something else on the calendar that weekend. Not this year. Unfortunately, my wife had to work, but I met my best gay friend for brunch, then we walked over to Meridian Street to view the festivities.
Ironically, I didn’t see anything that shocked me. Sure, there was the typical assortment of drag queens and Village People types. But my overall impression was not one of amazement. In fact, I was shocked at how “normal” a setting this was. The parade featured a marching band (although if it hadn’t been identified as a gay band, I would never have known), several church groups, a couple motorcycle groups and many corporate floats. The audience looked like an audience you’d find at the CarmelFest Parade – families, couples, young and old alike, but with a few more twentysomethings than CarmelFest.
I saw Indy Police, the Indy Fire Dept., and even a gay military group. No Boy Scouts, unfortunately, although I hope the day is fast approaching when they are not afraid to march at Indy Gay Pride. I saw a large contingent from North United Methodist Church, whose senior pastor is a friend of mine from college. He has made sure his congregation is supportive of gay rights. I also saw entrants from a United Church of Christ, and a couple Unitarian congregations. No Baptists, however. Eli Lilly, Cummins Engine and several health care organizations had large parade entries, each espousing their willingness to hire from the LGBT community. I saw Indy’s U.S. Congressman Andre Carson walking the parade, but I did not see Mayor Greg Ballard. Perhaps he had some more pressing work this Saturday morning.
The biggest applause was not for the military, as it is at most parades. No, the biggest applause here was for the Indiana Youth Group, a gay-youth support group whose license plate was apparently too vile for our state legislators, who have unsuccessfully tried to eliminate it. The Indiana Youth Group float featured a sign reading, “Thank you, ACLU.” As a card-carrying member of the ACLU of Indiana, I took a certain amount of pride witnessing this shout-out to the nonprofit organization who took the State of Indiana to court to reinstate the Youth Group plates.
But, I kept wondering, “Where are the weirdos?” Where is the spiked hair, the tattoos and the body piercings? Where are those who make the Miami Heat’s Chris “Birdman” Andersen seem tame? Where’s Dennis Rodman?
But then I remembered. My wife and I had seen them just a few days earlier when we visited Kings Island theme park near Cincinnati. It was our first time in eight years, and we were excited to try the new rides. But we showed our age as we gawked at what kids do to their bodies these days. At Flight of Fear, we stood in line for an hour behind a tattooed girl locked in a permanent inseparable embrace with a tall individual who didn’t appear to have a face – just hair resting on top of a neck. At one point, I caught myself reading a Bible verse on the back of the calf of the man walking in front of me. But then I stopped myself, and whispered to my wife, “No, I’m not doing this; I patently refuse to read anyone’s leg!”
Yes, that was the crowd I feared would rear its increasingly ugly head at the Gay Pride Parade, and I was never so pleasantly surprised to be wrong. Now, do you suppose Carmel will ever support such a parade? Wait! We already do. It’s called CarmelFest, and it’s essentially the heterosexual version of the Gay Pride Parade. I’ll see you there in a couple weeks.