Subject: IWG Chicago Tribune Letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 22:50:42 -0400 (EDT)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 10 congregations and religious
organizations and 46 clergy from 14 faiths and denominations. If you are in 
the general Philadelphia area and represent a congregation or religious 
organization or are clergy, let us know if you want to be added - all faiths 
are welcome. We will also be happy to help start similar organizations in 
other areas.

September 10, 1997

John McCarron
The Chicago Tribune
435 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611

Dear Mr. McCarron:

We read your Pride Parade commentary with interest, and
we applaud your support for legalized equality, but we
fear that you have missed the point.  Perhaps the
Chicago parade is significantly different than the
Diversity of Pride Parade held in Philadelphia.  We
have walked in the Philadelphia parade as a family with
the members and clergy of various religious
organizations for the last several years.  We march
both to show our support to the general public, and to
display a different face of religion to those in the
parade.  We read the news accounts of Pride parades all
over the country, and they seem to be remarkably
similar.   What Pride parades demonstrate very well is
that all sorts of people are sexual minorities and are
supportive of sexual minorities, just as all sorts of
people are Christians, or Jews, or have various skin
colors or ethnic backgrounds.  Some do dress up in
leather or in drag, at least on the day of the parade,
and probably other times as well.    In a city the size
of Philadelphia or Chicago there's very little anyone
could wear walking down the street on most days that
would even get them a second look anymore.

The problem isn't with Pride Parades, it's with people
who want to be able to classify people into groups
according to one or two random characteristics and then
assign one image to every member of that group. 
American society is much too complicated for simplistic
thinking.  Ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof),
sexual identity, sexual orientation, educational
background and many other factors both set us apart and
bind us together with other people.  As United States
citizens we are all legally entitled to equal
treatment, not because of how we dress, who we sleep
with, what religion we belong to, or how we act once a
year in Pride Parades.

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

-- 

Interfaith Working Group                Religious organizations, congregations
[email-masked]                      and clergy supporting gay rights,
http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/         reproductive freedom, and the 
215-235-3050                            separation of church and state.