2010 Twin Cities Gay Pride Festival

By August Berkshire

This year, 41 people took part in our annual participation in the Twin Cities Gay Pride Booth and Parade. We would especially like to thank Matthew Richardson for coordinating the booth volunteers; Steve Petersen, Shirley Moll, Rachel Wilson, and August Berkshire for setting up and tearing down the booth; and Richard Trombley for his photography.

Thank you to the following people for staffing our booth and/or marching in the parade: Dylan Adams, August Berkshire, Andy Berman, Rachel Berman, Sandra Breuer, Terry Burke, Jack Caravela , Kara Grochow, Carl Hancock, Kristin Harris, Bing Haubrich, Ella Haubrich, Mike Haubrich, Grant Hermanson, Joseph Homrich, Laura Hutt, Alison James, Eli James, Dan Jensen, George Kane, Sorcha Keepers, Nikii Lambert, Colin Marx, Sameeksha Mishra, Sanjeev Mishra, Shirley Moll, David Perry, Steve Petersen, Cathy Prody, Jerry Rauser, Steve Rehn, Tom Riddering, Fabian Rivera, Neyshaliz Rivera, Nualle Schallenberger, Paul Schenck, Valerie Square-Briggs, Richard Trombley, Georgia Tsoi, and Rachel Wilson.

As usual, we drew great applause as we marched and got hundreds of new names at our booth.  In fact, festival attendees were far more interested in our booth than in the religious booths that were near us! 

Our “Hug An Atheist” signs, both as we marched and at our booth, were especially well received, with many attendees availing themselves of the secular solace we offered.
As part of the festival, MNA president August Berkshire and Episcopal priest Theo Park officiated at a secular commitment ceremony for three same-sex couples that were renewing their vows to each other.