Students attend gay pride festival in Philadelphia

The SundayOut! festival spanned several blocks in the Old City section of Philidelphia.

Each Spring Equality Forum, a national nonprofit gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) organization headquartered in Philadelphia, presents a seven day celebration of international gay culture. This week of panels, symposiums, workshops, performances and special events culminates in SundayOUT!, the region’s largest annual GLBT street festival, featuring artisans, vendors, music and live entertainment. Vibrant, bustling, full of energy and pride, SundayOut! takes place in Philadelphia’s Old City, a trendy neighborhood abounding with art galleries, theaters, cafes and clubs. On Sunday, May 4, 25 St. Andrew’s students hopped on a bus to attend this exciting event.

The weather was brilliant, and students lost no time in joining the fun, checking out various booths, sipping lemonade and soaking up the sheer variety of people brought together to celebrate themselves and raise awareness for their cause.

“[SundayOUT!] is an environment where everybody is encouraged to be themselves,” said VI Former Clare Thermansen. Fellow senior Julia Van der Vink added, “And where homosexuals aren’t the minority, and can celebrate that.”

IV Formers Salewa Akintilo, Angel Genares, Ryan Koski-Vacirca and Rebecca Ogus enjoy the weather and the festival.

The festival’s celebratory atmosphere was undermined here and there by anti-homosexual activists who saw the event as an opportunity to propagate their disapprobation, which they claimed was faith-based. Wielding signs that warned of judgment and punishment and proclaimed homosexual relationships to be sinful, they stood off to the side of the bustling street, flanked by body guards in some cases.

It was incredulity rather than interest that prompted fair-goers to pause and listen to these picketers. Some angrily countered their claims; some laughed and moved on; others took advantage of the controversial interface to shoot footage for a documentary.

Accustomed to St. Andrew’s welcoming and open environment, many students had rarely or never encountered such adamant intolerance and prejudice. While all the visiting students strongly disagreed with the platforms of these protesters, some took the opposition as an opportunity for discussion.

Bert Lee joined two friends in conversation with one picketer. “We were there to ask questions,” he explained afterwards, “just as you’d ask questions during any interesting lecture or event. It’s another educational experience.”

While not every student addressed the picketers directly, all of them experienced some kind of response to their presence. “[The protests] seemed futile,” said IV Former Ben Wainwright. “The people who go to that event are there because they are decided and proud about their sexuality. They aren’t looking to be converted. The people preaching were speaking in absolute truths, and that’s a problem, because the meaning of the Bible depends on interpretation.”

All St. Andreans take Religious Studies in their IV Form year, and a few of them used their knowledge on Sunday in their discussions with dissenters. Asked about the substance of her conversation with a young sign-bearer, VI Former Nia Hinkson explained, “I tried to challenge her using what I knew about the Bible. Jesus said, ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’ So I asked her if she was ‘without sin.’ Finally she admitted that no, she wasn’t. So I asked her, ‘Why are you here?’ She couldn’t answer that question directly, which for me just confirms that no one has any ‘right’ answers about how we should live life.”

“Initially, their message upset me,” Nia reflected while on the bus back to St. Andrew’s, “but I have to come to terms with what freedom of speech really means. Ultimately, I can’t blame those people for saying what they felt.”

VI Formers Nia Hinkson and Bert Lee engage a picketer in discussion.

Clare and Julia spent some time talking with another protester. He was standing on a small platform on the side of the street, announcing his objections through a loudspeaker. “He argued that the Bible was absolute law,” said Julia “and he held and referred to the Bible as if to say, ‘I’ve got the ace of spades on my side; what do you have on yours?’ It was interesting to confront this. I felt myself getting angry at first, but I was able to identify his good intentions, and to see him as more than simply a ‘hater.’ I appreciated the dialogue, though I fundamentally disagreed with him.”

“The dialogue was healthy in that both sides were listening,” said Clare. “This was the first time I had gotten into a discussion like this,” she added. “It’s not often that you are confronted with views that are so opposite to your own. I think it was good for me.”

After a few hours of exploring the fair, St. Andreans headed back to campus, and many students spent the bus ride talking over the events of the day. An observer might have wondered at the fact that St. Andrew’s students were among the only fair-goers to engage in mutually respectful conversation with the picketers, rather than responding in kind, with shouts. Their instinct to ask questions, to force themselves to be curious rather than reactive, was a testament to the tolerance and intelligence of these students.