N.Y. gay pride parade gets religion

In San Francisco, Elizabeth Edwards says she supports gay marriage.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 25, 2007

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NEW YORK - Religious groups led the city's gay pride parade on Sunday, lending gravity to an often outrageous event that also featured a jumble of drag queens in feather boas, marching bands, motorcycle-riding lesbians, rugby players and samba dancers.

"We stand for a progressive religious voice, " said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. "Those who use religion to advocate an antigay agenda, I believe, are blaspheming God's name."

The annual parade, one of dozens around the world, commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots in which patrons at a Greenwich Village gay bar fought back against a police raid.

At San Francisco's festival, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards marked the occasion by splitting with her husband over support for legalized gay marriage.

"I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me, " Elizabeth Edwards said at a news conference before the parade. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."

The New York march took place days after the State Assembly passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, which Gov. Eliot Spitzer supports. Although the bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled state Senate anytime soon, paradegoers said they were cheered by the Assembly's action.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg marched with other elected officials, including Lt. Gov. David Paterson.

Tens of thousands of people attended the march. Spectators lining Fifth Avenue included gay people sporting rainbow flags and curious tourists.

Andrew Stanley of Shrewsbury, England, said the march was "very colorful."

"I've never seen one before, " he said, "but I think it's a good idea."