SCUCC had a great team of over 20 people who helped make their presence at the Pride Festival and the Pride Parade extravagantly welcoming.
Patti Sutherland reported, "It was a great success! A lot of people thanked us for being there and were interested in what we are doing @ SCUCC. They loved the fans and the banners and many stopped to talk and ask questions.
Diana Winston: "People appreciated the fans and many were happy to chat. It was a wonderful and very uplifting experience. People all seemed so happy to be there."
Karl Stambaugh: "At the Pride Festival, it was really fun watching the people walking by. As you could maybe imagine, there was a wide variety of ages with many different styles of dress and undress. I never knew there were so many different types of rainbow flags with different sets of colors. Each one represents a different sexuality - you'd need a playbook to know what they all mean.
We had a booth with the three banners we usually display out front. People especially liked the "Prays Well with Others" one. The church distributed some give-away bling with an SCUCC message that caused people to stop and interact a bit. During the heat of the day, many were very grateful for the fans that volunteers distributed, and who knows, they may even read them later and be curious to find out more. Some people were actively interested in their church, and would stop to chat a bit. Some of the people live too far from Scottsdale to attend, and those were directed to other UCC churches. Most seemed glad that there are churches that accepted and supported them.
However, they think we had our biggest impact simply because we showed up - we were seen by many people walking by as a church that accepts LGBTQ people. That is not what most are used to hearing.
There were - as usual - some haters and hecklers at the end of the parade route, and some of those who walked said that it was worth the whole effort and the long wait for the start time and enduring the heat just to stand as a loving presence in the face of the hatred.
Thank you, SCUCC, for being the Church!