D.C. PARADE

George Offerman


Five of us went to Washington, D.C for the homosexual rights parade yesterday to protest. Randall Terry, Dick Retta and I were on bullhorns, while Andrew Becham video taped, and Joseph Landry held signs, and stood ‘body guard’ by Randall Terry. The parade was about everything we had expected, and dreaded.

Prior to the start of the parade, we all prayed at Lafayette Park, and Randall instructed us one last time as the purpose of our mission, and what we were to say. The goal was to preach a positive, but firm message against the sin of homosexuality, that marriage is between a man and a woman, and to repent of this active sin. Randall also mentioned that we would be met with great hostility, but to persevere in our message. We also were there to touch the few hearts that would be receptive to the message.

We left Lafayette Park, and proceeded to 16th street. We arrived before the march started, and Randall boldly walked in the middle of the street, into the midst of a group with a large banner. We followed, and ended up being surrounded by extremely agitated protestors yelling at us to ‘get the f--- out of here’. Some volunteers surrounded us to keep the agitators away, and several attempted to spit on us. We stayed in the midst of this group, until the police told us to go to the sidewalk.

The three of us with bull horns then separated and began to preach to the crowd. The hostility aimed at us was horrendous and the verbiage used unprintable. We put with a great amount of abuse, and about 45 minutes into the march, Dick Retta had several hostile people in front of him, and one young woman attempted to ‘stab’ him with the point of a small flag. I went over and stood body guard for him, as he seemed to attract the most verbally and physically intimidating of the marchers. Dick continued to preach despite the fact he had people grabbing him, mocking him, taking pictures in front of him, making lewd gestures and even taking his signs and destroying them.

I did have a young man named David, who came up to me and asked many inquisitive questions about my views, and actually wanted to debate the nature of my beliefs. As we talked there were two others who came over and joined in on the conversation, and it appeared that some of the points I brought up seemed to resonate with them. We discussed how we do not hate, but want to see repentance and healing for the people here, and for the nation. These young people surprisingly agreed that there was merit to us saying their beliefs were being forced on us, but they also wanted us to leave them alone. We did have others state they didn’t agree with our message, but we had the right to be there.

It definitely was not comfortable being there, and at times outright scary. We had more than a few threaten to ‘kick our a----‘, but the need to be there outweighed the fear and inconvenience of the experience. I told Randall after we left that I cannot imagine an abortuary ever being that hostile, and how many of the protests in the future will seem tame compared to this.

My hope is we will have more warriors with us the next time. Despite the fact it was the most intense protest and march I have seen, there really was a longing in my heart to reach out, and a real sadness when watching the level of debauchery going on in front of us. The disrespect, and almost total hatred for what we hold dearly was a painful experience, but one that will equip me and those present for whatever battle lies ahead.