Pride events full of diversity

Buddhist, Baptist, pagan, Mormon, straight, gay, transgendered — crowds at several Utah Pride 2006 events Saturday were as diverse in their religious affiliation as they are in their sexual preference.

Several hundred people marched down Salt Lake City's State Street to Library Square in the late afternoon, chanting, "Two, four, six, eight, Christian hate won't make us straight."

Kathy Worthington stood on the corner of North Temple and State Street waving a rainbow flag while a handful of street preachers condemned her homosexual lifestyle.

"These events empower people; they make you feel like you're not alone," she said.

Earlier in the day, a group gathered at Library Square for the Pride Interfaith Service to practice prayers and rituals from the various religions in Utah's culture.

They held Christian prayers, chanted with the Buddhists, sang to Mother Earth — but while members of the group may have had different concepts of god and faith, they were united in their message of acceptance.

"This world asks us to be anonymous to ourselves," said the Rev. Sean Parker Dennison, a transgendered Unitarian minister. "But you are good, every person is valuable and full of potential."

Dennison also spoke about the effort to pass a federal amendment banning gay marriage.

"There is more legislation meant to punish and silence us," he said.

Russ Gorringe, leader of Reconciliation, a group of homosexual Mormons, said he is disappointed by the LDS Church's opposition to gay marriage.

"It's hurtful," he said. "I feel like the people who were once persecuted and hurt are now the persecutors."

He led the congregation in a prayer saying that he hopes people of religions opposed to homosexuality will learn to embrace people of different sexual orientations.

Utah Pride 2006 events continue today, with a 10 a.m. parade that heads up State Street from 300 South to South Temple, then back down 200 East to Library Square. The Pride Festival will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Library Square.

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E-mail: dgardiner@desnews.com; ldethman@desnews.com