Rochester Celebrates 40th Gay Pride Day

 

Rochester held its 40th annual Gay Pride parade and festival on July 22 2013.  This year's festival marked several political events.  Most noticeable was the Wizard of Oz themed "Ding Dong DOMA is Dead" regarding the Supreme Court ruling on the unconstitutional "Defense Of Marriage Act" which prohibited the Federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.  There were marchers dressed as witches, tin men, lions and Dorothy.  There were displays of houses falling on effigies of hate and bigotry.  A local take on the story evolved when Monroe County executive Maggie Brooks refused to fly the group's Rainbow flag at county facilities.  

There were also groups marching in support of Private Bradley Manning.  Manning is currently on trial for exposing classified government documents revealing war crimes committed by US troops.  While Manning has been in prison and faces a possible life sentence, no one who actually committed the war crimes has been prosecuted or even investigated. Manning is not alone as another whistle-blower Edward Snowden is in exile after exposing additional crimes of US the government and intelligence agencies.  No one exposed by Snowden has been prosecuted or investigated as well.

Perhaps more troubling was what happened when I arrived early at the event.  When asked where the Bradley Manning groups were meeting, the most common response was "Who is Bradley Manning?" This represents nothing short of a failure of our mainstream news media to do its job.