Quote of the Day

The Chicago Gay Pride Parade attracts 800,000 people. It proceeds through a heavily congested, dense urban cityscape. Absolutely positively everything in its wake is disrupted. What on earth makes one service at one church on one day special enough to change the start time of a gigantic parade? Let alone excuses comparing 'the gay liberation movement' with the 'Ku Klux Klan'? No, Cardinal [George], the Gay Pride committee is not targeting the Catholic church. 'The gay liberation movement' is not targeting the Catholic church either. Your church building is affected in no way any different from hundreds upon hundreds of buildings for miles in all directions (Lake Michigan notwithstanding). You really do need to get out more.

– Rex Wockner
Quoted in "Chicago Cardinal Defends Comparison of Gays to KKK"
Towleroad
December 28, 2011

Actually, if Chicago is anything like the Twin Cities and most other places, then Cardinal George also needs to know that thousands of Christians, including many Catholics, will be part of the Gay Pride event that he's so upset about. Members of the church's clerical caste have become so adept at portraying (and dismissing) LGBT folks as the ultimate "other" that even journalists like Rex Wockner forget to acknowledge the reality that gay people are (and have always been) part of the church; that for many "out and proud" gay people, their faith is an important aspect of their lives. All the more reason, I guess, for blogs like this one. . . .

See, for example, the previous Wild Reed posts:
A Catholic Presence at Gay Pride (2011)
A Catholic Presence at Gay Pride (2010)
LGBT Catholics Celebrate Being "Wonderfully Made"
A Catholic Presence at Gay Pride (2009)
A Catholic Presence at Gay Pride (2008)
A Catholic Presence at Gay Pride (2007)
Celebrating Our Sanctifying Truth
Dan Furmansky: "Why We Have Pride"
Gay Pride as a Christian Event
Gay Pride: A Celebration of True Humility
Coming Out: An Act of Holiness
The Gifts of Homosexuality
Gay People and the Spiritual Life

For MN Senator Scott Dibble's response to Cardinal George, see:
Quote of the Day – December 23, 2011