Irishman Peter Houlihan admires the people who marched for gay pride in Uganda, where homosexuality is a capital offense and believes their bravery is a beautiful thing.
The New Yorker is featuring an amazing story about people who participated in a gay pride march in Uganda.
The guts it must have taken to do this I can’t imagine. Pride marches where I live, like most political demonstrations, are a civilised affair. Citizens have the right to make their voices heard and to the limited use of public resources to do so. Other citizens have the right to speak out against their voice and a Garda (police) presence ensures that neither group is able to infringe upon each other’s rights or safety. Dublin pride is a colourful affair, full of flags and music, and while not all of the onlookers understand what’s happening or agree with it, I’ve never personally seen any violence directed at the parade. People bring their kids along and the city council gives them the use of their land for speeches at the end of the parade route.
I don’t know what it’s like to take part in a protest where I might be killed. Many people fought with their lives to make this so and I owe them my thanks. Those people in Uganda don’t enjoy that privilege, but they marched anyway, because they could see a future where they could wave a flag, sit their kids on their shoulders, and be proud. That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve seen today.
AP Photo/ Katy Pownall
Very brave indeed and I hold hope that their protest parade will soon become a party parade, just like it is where I live.
Braveness is powerful, and though the link below is off topic, the similarities are striking – Olympic sized braveness all around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1slESfh_3M0&feature=player_embedded
It’s even more amazing that these brave people stood up in pride when you consider the Murder of David Kato – that news media happily out people so they can be targeted, publishing photos, names, home addresses and even phone numbers (and many go missing …presumed dead … activity shifted to expanding social media and mobile technology), that US based evangelicals are funding missions to promote the execution of G.A.Y. men and women (American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) aka televangelist Pat Robertson, Family Watch International aka Mormon activist Sharon Slater – and Human Life International – a catholic… Read more »