Friday night was the Pride parade and you probably have seen the pix already. If not they are on our Facebook page. We had 20 people there holding signs, passing out info cards, and telling the gay community that we love them. More often than not, this community hears hate and not love from Christians. But, they will know we are His followers by our love. Some people wonder what this would really accomplish. On Friday night alone, we had many parade-goers want to take pictures with us. People marching in the parade would take pictures and stop to hug us. Some were teary-eyed. Many thanked us for being there. One of the grand marshals read our "Love Speaks Louder" poster, our group's name, into the microphone near 4th and Fremont which is the most crowded area at the parade.
People would ask us who we were and what we were doing. This led to some great conversations. In this picture (left), an audience member lady asked about us. After a volunteer told her what we were doing, she asked our volunteer to pray for her right there on the spot. This scenario repeated itself multiple times. We had another audience member give us $20 to donate to the church after hearing why we were at the parade. 
And we did receive some negativity - it came from people who saw posters, expected the worst, and reacted before reading them. One of our leaders had a soda thrown on her feet from across the street. Another volunteer had a sign knocked down. After it was on the ground the individual read it then apologized. We don't hold their actions against them. These actions came from hurt caused by how this community has been treated in the past.That's why this was so powerful.
The next morning we found out that a picture of our group was posted to the Facebook page of QVegas Magazine (over 33,000 "like" their page). It was shared by complete strangers, one of whom stated that it was his favorite part of the parade. We can only imagine how many people have shared it (most shares are blocked by privacy settings), how many people have seen it already, and what it's doing for them. Our own photo has already reached over 500 people and we only have around 70 followers; imagine how many 33,000 would reach!
On Saturday, we went to Pride's Festival to see what it was like. It is a bunch of booths, performances, and food vendors. We ate a funnel cake. We went contemplating the idea of getting a booth next year. Didn't plan to stay long. Just wanted to take some pictures and see what it was like. Some of what goes on there many would find to be vulgar. Some is fun, family-friendly entertainment. There were also two church booths at the fest (Imago Dei, which is a ministry of the Catholic church, and Northwest Community Church which is from the United Church of Christ denomination). 
We ran into a friend. Our unexpected "tour guide" spent hours with us. By the end he knew what we stood for very clearly and shared some of his own experiences with Christianity. In addition, we were able to meet many leaders from LGBT community organizations. We have known that we will need to build credibility in the community and we feel that doors were opened for us on Saturday. We also got to meet the owner of QVegas, who played photographer at the parade. He stated that "the picture" is everywhere.We also spoke with many people who (because we wore our "I'm Sorry" shirts) ended up recognizing us as "the people with the posters". We got to have further conversations with them. They came from a variety of backgrounds but all were thankful for our presence, both Friday and Saturday.
When we went to the festival, we didn't know it but God was up to something.
As for our readers, we want you to know that this is no longer a once-a-year thing. We need to get involved with this community and we can't expect them to recognize us, let alone trust us enough to discuss tough issues, if we only show up once a year. This blog will be a launching point for sharing what we're up to. Most of our work will be spending time speaking to a variety of people in person and sharing the information with you.
