'Together, We Rise! – Defying Fear, Embracing Hope'

I spent a few hours on Saturday 5/17/2025 strolling the streets of New Hope, PA offering FREE MOM HUGS to willing recipients. The occasion was Pridefest 2025 and as I was heading there, I prayed that the rain would stop and the threatening and darkened skies would clear enough to allow the revelers to enjoy the festivities. That it did. And that they did, although I suspect that the folks there would have danced in the rain and splashed in the puddles. I was looking for a rainbow, but none appeared, although it would have been perfectly appropriate. It occurred to me that the meteorological dance was a reflection of what the LGBTQ+ community is experiencing in this country, with darkness, threats of violence, rights stripped away and sheer obliteration, if some had their way. The power of the people is stronger than the people in power as was evidenced by what was both celebration and ‘in your face’ protest against the powers that be. I have a sign in my yard that reads ‘Our Love is Stronger Than Your Hate,’ and could have been a theme as well.

I have long been an ally of the community. I went to my first Gay rights march in NYC in my 20s and consider myself ‘heteroflexible’. Most of my relationships have been with men. I was monogamously married to a man for nearly 12 years and before then and after his passing, have been involved with women and men. I say that ‘it’s about the person, not the plumbing,’ and not ‘choosing sides, but choosing a person’. I have also never understood why it is anyone’s business other than the parties involved, where they exist on the sexual orientation and gender identity matrix. I also don’t get the obsession with other people’s bits and parts when it comes to using the facilities. I don’t care who I am peeing next to. I just want folks to put the lid down, flush and then wash their hands.

I am an interfaith minister who marries same sex couples and am appalled at the move to disenfranchise loving couples simply because of who they choose to commit to. There are those who consider the lovely people who marched in this parade today and who do all kinds of ‘normal people things,’ like work, pay taxes, raise their children, mow their lawns, volunteer in their communities, and attend services at their houses of worship, as ‘freaks and fruitcakes’. Why does this so inflame them to the point of disparagement and threatening?

Of course, there were protestors with their vitriolic signs professing the love of Jesus, the glorification of the current president and simultaneously spewing hate. Their megaphone blaring braying were no match for the music and dancing of those who came to celebrate. As was advised, they didn’t engage with those who were hoping to get a reaction. Police stood between both groups. There is no hatred like pseudo religious ‘love’. At the end of the parade which stretched from Lambertville on the New Jersey side of the bridge that spanned the Delaware River to the New Hope side, those same officers accompanied the protestors back to their cars. I wonder who they were afraid would start an altercation.

In the time I was there, I ambled around at my own pace, with my hiking pole as companion because of arthritic hips and COPD. I stopped when I needed to rest and noticed that when I was hugging, the pain dropped to a manageable level, evidencing the power of hugs to heal. Usually I tote my Hugmobsters Armed with Love sign but this time, my t-shirt was my sign. Delighted people approached me, some saying that they could realllly use a hug. The beauty of FREE MOM HUGS is that it meets a need for people whose parents did not and do not embrace their choice to live authentically. Connecting heart to heart with strangers can be uplifting.

The theme of this event was “Together, We Rise! – Defying Fear, Embracing Hope”. It perfectly answered the call to love in the face of fear, to love in the face of disparagement, to love in the face of hatred, to love in the face of intended destruction. Hope can be fortifying and strengthening. Hope can replace all that seeks to harm. Hope can plant the seeds for beautiful blossoming. We need each other to rise up!

My friend Ed Kimble wrote this ode to the event and gave me consent to incorporate it here.

Together We Rise!