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Pride Parade continues despite Langford’s opposition

Posted on Jun 09, 2008 in News

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On Saturday, June 7, Birmingham opened its streets to Central Alabama’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community. This was the 20th annual Pride Parade and was hosted by Central Alabama Pride.

The parade is a part of Central Alabama’s annual pride week, which is called “The 10 Days of Pride,” and also hosted by Central Alabama Pride every year. This celebration encompasses everything from the Pride Parade to PRIDEFest, which is a daylong event for the whole family.

The parade’s theme for this year is “Pride365 – Building a Stronger Community.” The theme rang true to its name this year, as the events did not go about without having a little opposition from the mayor of Birmingham, Larry Langford.

Central Alabama Pride needed the city to sign off on a proclamation that would allow them to put on the celebration and put up banners to advertise it. The problem was that Mayor Langford did not want to associate himself with the parade.

Among the GLBT community of Birmingham, Langford has not been a favorite. Langford was cited in The Birmingham News saying that he believed it was inappropriate for a government to endorse a lifestyle.

Jarred Barron, a member of UAB’s Gay/Straight Alliance, believes that Langford is ignoring his duties as Mayor.
“Signing a parade permit is not endorsing a lifestyle,” Barron said. “It’s executing [one] of the functions for which Langford was elected.”

Paige Morrison, another member of UAB’s Gay/Straight Alliance, was not surprised by the stance that Mayor Langford took against the Parade.

“Mayor Langford’s responsibilities as mayor are to his constituents,” said Morrison. “He should not allow his personal beliefs to show in policy that would discriminate against a group.”

Langford’s use of words has also offended members of GLBT community, as well as members outside of the community.

“Endorsing our so-called lifestyle would be if Langford elected to march in the parade,” said Barron. “We are simply asking for equal consideration under the law.”

Julie Calton Watters, who works with the Crisis Center in Birmingham, expressed her disappointment with Langford’s actions.

“It is inappropriate for an elected official to make such a statement when the motto of our very country is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” she said. “We allow parades and events for animal lovers, for education, for protests, for veterans, for cancer survivors and for no reason at all other than pure celebration. Not allowing the parade and affiliated events to take place contradicts our base human rights.”

Members of the GLBT community in Birmingham were not surprised by his actions against the parade.

“I was not surprised by his initial reaction to his first gay pride parade as mayor of Birmingham,” said Larry Slater, a member of UAB’s Gay/Straight Alliance. “Langford does not care about our city and its citizens, just like he did not care for the city of Fairfield or for Jefferson County. All this controversy did was display how incompetent Langford is and will continue to be for the city of Birmingham.”

Some could view this as Langford singling out the GLBT community.

“Langford is singling out the gay community because we are one of the very last groups against which discrimination is acceptably applied,” said Barron. “It’s popular to be homophobic, and, as a politician, Langford is no exception.”
The Pride Parade went as planned on Saturday, June 7 at Five Points South in downtown Birmingham.
 

Email: kse2005@uab.edu