How a Pastor and a Popcorn Shop Owner Helped Save Pride in Starkville

Who was the rabbi who marched with Mr. Montgomery in the parade? Please let us know. Yasher koach to the rav!

It is to be noted that even here in Palm Springs, California or Idyllwild, California where we spend summers in the mountains, the ONLY difference between here and Starksville, Miss. is NUMBERS. Some of our religion based neighbors would just as soon see us LGBTQ neighbors disappear overnight perhaps sent to camps. We see in their eyes and feel in their body language, resentment and even hate. So don't kid yourselves, homophobia thrives here too but SILENTLY. No place is entirely safe. Our PUBLIC LIBRARY in Idyllwild, Riverside County, REFUSED TO RECOGNIZE GAY PRIDE MONTH as they do with many other minorities in special display presentations.

I wish the article listed the names of the city officials and how each voted. I think it's important to record this history and which side of it persons with authority are on.

These are true Americans. These are true Patriots. People who stand together for human rights and equality. That is what the Founders had in mind. As for the primitives who were rambling about "Adam and Steve"- well, they should take another look at the bible. And maybe they should be reported.

Well said! We are still fighting the battle here in the South. It's far too easy to lose this perspective if you live in a NYC\LA etc bubble. Not to say that prejudice does not exist everywhere, but its existential here in a way that is not present elsewhere. Which is why Starkville Pride is such a great story and victory!

This will no doubt sound terrible and terribly catty, but as someone who lives the life in the Dirty Dirty South, there's just something deeply sad and pathetic about lifestyle affirming activism. Especially over Will and Grace style gayness. The virtue-tourists, the people who like "fun!," the college kids, the way too earnest parents and their kids, the corporate sponsors with the idiot employees packed onto floats, taking selfies and then insipidly posting them like crazy to fill whatever god-sized hole sits at the center of their soul. It's all just so, so sad. I skip out on these things too. These are boring events, for boring people. It was better back in the day, when there really was nudity. In fact, being gay and trans was more fun then too. Back then, it was all about dodging a beating or AIDS, and our clubs were ours. Today it's all about getting married, and the biggest risk is winding up with that 1 out of 10,000 bakers that might not bake you a cake. Oh, the horror! And here's another sign of the end times. If your event or movement has official swag, with established vendors, it's already a zombie commodity. Those "Resist" shirts? Those pink hats the basic women wore after Trump won? Puh-lease. Just. Stop. Wake me up when the bourgeois masses leach onto marijuana legalization. The parades, corporate types, college kids, and dorky parents will probably still be there, but if I can at least be high, they'll be slightly more interesting.

It's great but... "her super woke queer friends?" I mean... NYT?

Thank you for this wonderful story. In the midst of such a wrenching week, it restores my faith in humanity. Human decency is beautiful to witness.

Great piece and I am glad that NYT followed up with what happened in Starkville. It is absolutely a feel good story that deserved attention, and I truly hope signifies how attitudes are changing. As a resident who participated, there was immense joy and communal spirit at the first LGBTQ Pride parade in Starkville. However, do not mischaracterize the motives of the one abstaining alderman. Note he did not change his vote, merely abstained. I suspect he understood the writing on the wall -- that the lawsuit would be costly to the city (he is a republican and fiscal conservative). The others did not change their vote. I suspect that the parade was also saved by the aldermen (and woman) who voted yes and who helped Little see the error of his initial vote. So, ultimately, money interests helped to save the PRIDE parade.

Well, call this frosty, jaded New Yorker a mush after reading this beautiful, poignant story. Yes, in New York, we have the luxury of taking things like Pride for granted. Yes, NYC Pride is crowded, noisy, claustrophobic and oh so very corporate. But it is a reminder that we cannot take all of our progress for granted. And we can't be invisible because invisibility=silence=death. I am about as shut-in as they get, but even I will make the effort this Sunday to get out and concentrate on the beauty of our diversity.

The protest sign seen in the opening photo serves as a reminder that many in "straight" America look upon gayness as being about nothing more than sex - not as in male/female as much as about ... well, the act of sex, with another of the same gender. I continue to wonder if those who continue to perceive gayness this way will ever get past that stigma and see LGBTQ culture as being far more about love than about the sex act, crossing the road into tolerance at long last. It would be a fine thing to behold, but I'm not holding my breath.

The dichotomy between areas of this country was brought home to my daughter last summer when she worked as a counselor at a local day camp and group of 8 year old boys had a child join the group mid summer because “Charlotte” was ready to live his life as “Charlie”. The boys welcomed Charlie as did their parents with lots of offers of play dates. The camp worked with Charlie and his parents to make the transition smooth. We live in a very liberal area near a major city. When my daughter went back to nursing school in the fall the topic of working with transgender children came up. Some of her fellow nurses from very different places. They were incredulous that the situation at her camp would have caused no issue with the camp or parents.