BY TROY PERRY | 46 years ago I helped plan with two other men the first GLBT Pride parade in world history. I had planned to attend that parade. But today all I can do is pray and cry. Today, we who are in our community, our friends, and our families are, or were going to celebrate, but many of us can only cry.
I pray for all the martyrs of this tragedy. Those murdered in this terrorist act, those injured and in the hospital, all their families and friends we pray for you. This is not the first time that our community has felt despair and it probably won’t be the last.
But through it all, our community has never lost hope, and we have seen change. And yet today, all I can do is cry.
How proud I am of the LGBT community and the larger heterosexual community that has changed so much and who have been supportive of us. This last week I was invited by the police commission of the city of Los Angeles to offer the invocation at the GLBTQ celebration of its officers who are part of our community. Chief of police Charlie Beck, so spoke of how proud he was of all of his officers including those who are members of my community. Really, how things of changed!
I had to sue that same please commission 46 years ago to hold that first parade. How proud I am of the police and sheriffs department of my city and county.
We have a president of our country and a mayor of Los Angeles who speak eloquently about our community.
I love my city. It has been so good to me but today all I can do is cry.
I have just heard on television that a man has been arrested carrying guns and perhaps explosives, telling the police that he was on his way to the gay pride parade in West Hollywood.
I guess all I can do is asked all of my neighbors to pray for all in this country, because today all I can do is cry.
