Pride vs Modesty

Toronto is gearing up for Pride Week and I know many people that deliberately take holidays for this time of year to either indulge freely in the festivities or to avoid them all together. I really have never paid attention to Pride Week as it just didn’t seem to have much relevance to my own life. The one time it did was when Dad & I had the children on a family outing and we inadvertently got stuck in the middle of the parade with our very young pre-schoolers in tow. Damn shortcuts. Generally, I have never minded answering the children’s questions, but this was the one time that I directed every response with a - Ask you Dad. He’ll explain it. Call me slow-witted, but I just couldn’t come up with a cover story on the spot to explain the need and function of men dressed in chaps, whips, & handcuffs.

Israel has been wrestling with the whole concept of Gay Pride Week for the last few years, much like Dad wrestled that day with the children’s questions. Last year’s Pride Parade ended with the stabbing of a number of parade participants. The anti-Parade fraction has decided to be pro-active rather than just be content to issue the ritual condemnations and threats. This year they will hold their own modesty parade reports Ynet News Online.

Repentance Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak announced that he plans to hold a “modesty parade” in response to the gay pride parade scheduled to march through Jerusalem August 11. The event is planned to precede the WorldPride parade by a few days, and expects an attendance of over 20,000 people.

The event is being planned by the “Shofar” group and is being publicized, among other places, on their website. Shofar, founded by Rav Yitzhak, is devoted to promoting the "return to religion" (hazara be’tshuva) amongst secular Jews. According to the site, “Two days before the date on which the vile souls are planning their World ‘March of Abomination,’ thousands of Jews whose souls have been saved and have chosen God’s path will hold a ‘Modesty march’ of incredible proportions.

Its very occurrence will denunciate the abomination and defilement, will vomit out its participants from among us and will set fire to their infection. Thousands of Jews from Israel and the world, to whom the purity and sanctity of Jerusalem is important, will demonstrate the extraordinariness of the way of the Torah chosen by thousands.”

Now the idea of a “modesty parade” sounds a little dull and lame – (and not to mention a tad self-defeating for the whole parade concept) but what really strikes me is the lack of modesty in the “modesty” organizers. I have always believed that the rights and beliefs of the religious should be respected and protected, but that should not translate into giving the religious a carte blanche to demonize any group of individuals who live contrary to their values.