Pride parade surges past protesters

Durham event draws thousands

DURHAM -- Men dressed to the nines in glittery gowns, steep high heels, glistening tiaras and lots of makeup playfully posed for thousands of fans in front of floats on one side of Main Street.

On the opposite side, a half-dozen men from Concord huddled around an amplified megaphone, preaching their version of the Gospel to a crowd that did not want to hear them.

Nearly 6,000 people had gathered on the edge of Duke University's East Campus for the 22nd North Carolina Gay Pride Parade.

The parade typically is the big draw in PrideFest, a three-day event that pulls in people from the Carolinas, Virginia and beyond.

Organizers were proud of how much the event had grown since the first one 25 years ago. Events, serious and festive, were scheduled in Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh.

"It's just gotten bigger," said Annette Warner, 45, a Wilmington resident who has attended the annual parade for the past 10 years. "But this is the first time I've seen this," she added, pointing to the men across the street shouting Bible passages over a bullhorn.

Flip Benham, the leader of Operation Rescue/Operation Save America, a Concord-based organization that battles abortion, homosexuality and Islam, was ordered by police to turn off the amplifier. He had not gotten the proper noise permit, a lieutenant at the event said.

"We get one day out of the year, and we get people like that who want to preach to us," said John Martin, 34, of Charlotte. "We don't go to their holy roller events and disrupt them. The Bible says to love your neighbor as thyself. It doesn't tell you who to love and not to love."

Once the parade started, the preachers were drowned out by loud cheers, honking horns and buzzing kazoos.

A marching band, political dignitaries and numerous gay advocates, including church groups and college alliances, made their way down Main Street toward the Ninth Street business district.

Smartly dressed drag queens delighted their audience with beauty-queen waves from colorfully decorated floats. Men in Army fatigues topped the Fayetteville United For Pride float displaying the banner: "742 Kicked Out, 2005."

"I've never seen a parade without Santa Claus," said Bobby Archer, 47, of Locust.

North Carolina's first gay pride rally was organized in Durham 25 years ago after a deadly gay-bashing incident on the banks of the Little River.

Much has changed since that first gathering.

Wib Gulley, counsel for the Triangle Transit Authority and a former six-term state senator, was mayor of Durham in 1986 when he issued an "Anti-Discrimination Week" proclamation that put him up against a recall movement that failed for a lack of signatures.

In his proclamation, Gulley denounced discrimination of people based on race, gender and sexual preference.

"It's a little hard today to imagine the time period 20 years ago, but that wasn't the usual or acceptable approach to anti-discrimination at the time," Gulley said this week in a telephone interview. "I heard about it. But you couldn't say some forms of discrimination were wrong and other unjustifiable forms of bias were OK."

Keith Hayes, spokesman for the Pride Committee of North Carolina, said that although he was saddened by the attention paid to the protesters, he was heartened by what he saw this weekend at PrideFest and in years past.

"We continue to make it safer and easier for people to be out, out as gay people in society," Hayes said. "Every year I see more and more young people out and participating in this event. That's momentous, really. I didn't come out until I was in my 30s."