This Friday, the Jerusalem Pride and Tolerance Parade will finally take place, after much unfortunate delay. I'm heading up to Jerusalem tomorrow to participate and see for myself what the whole tremendous fuss is all about. I have a couple friends who won't be marching because they don't believe it will send the right message nor advance the gay political platform, I have a friend who's not marching because he's a bit apathetic and figures he's seen it all before, and I've got a couple friends who actively discouraged me from going on the grounds of immodesty. I strongly doubt that the predictions that the parade will be nothing but a wild spectacle of gratuitous lewdness are anything more than the incitant exaggerations of hate-mongers. After all, the weather in Jerusalem these days isn't exactly conducive to dressing in thong bikinis and loose-mesh tank tops.

I admit that I could be wrong. If it turns out that there's no significant segment of the parade which manages to conform to the standards of physical modesty that should be reasonably expected from a modern secular liberal culture, then there really will be no place for me in the parade, and I will respectfully refrain from marching. But I really doubt that such will be the case, and I greatly look forward to sauntering down the avenue this Friday, waving a great big rainbow flag.