Homosexual activists have found a way to besmirch the reputation of yet another American cultural institution. The Pasadena Star News, the California hometown newspaper of the 125-year-old Tournament of Roses Parade, reported that at the upcoming January 1 parade, two homosexuals, identified as Danny Leclair, 45, and Aubrey Loots, 42, will stage a same-sex “wedding” ceremony “atop a giant wedding cake-shaped float sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.”
The paper recalled that the “first-ever live wedding during the annual Rose Parade took place in 1989. It was called the ‘most widely witnessed wedding in American history’” — and, of course, back then it was a legitimate marriage of a man and a woman.
Not so this time, however, as this time around two gay men “will take their vows before the nearly 500,000 people who will line Colorado Boulevard on January 1 and millions of television viewers watching around the globe.”
The publicity stunt comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s June ruling that made same-sex “marriage” legal in California, and the two homosexual men are excited about “standing on the shoulders of thousands of men and women who came before us in this fight for marriage equality,” Leclair told the Pasadena paper. “We’re excited to be part of that story, to be able to do this because of them. We’re looking forward to honor that.”
The two gay beaus will not be alone as they preen for gawking observers along the Rose Parade route. “Sharon Raphael and Mina Meyer, a lesbian couple together for 42 years, will also join Leclair and Loots on the float,” reported the Huffington Post. “Raphael and Meyer were legally married in California in 2008 prior to the passage of Proposition 8” — the amendment to California’s constitution that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman, before being shot down by the High Court.
The opportunity for the two men to be the featured attraction in a gay spectacle at the erstwhile family-friendly parade “presented itself in October when Leclair attended a same-sex wedding expo and applied for a chance of a lifetime — the chance to marry on top of the 2014 Roses Parade,” reported ABC News. “Leclair submitted an application and quickly fired off a text to his boyfriend with the picture of two grooms accompanied with the phrase ‘will you marry me.’ Five weeks later the two were selected.”
Meanwhile, Loots is hoping against hope that rank-and-file Americans who are forced to witness the event “won’t see two men up there. It’s two people in love,” he insisted to Southern California Public Radio.
Sadly, Tournament of Roses Parade organizers see nothing amiss with using the venue to promote homosexuality to millions of Americans — including not a few children who watch with their families along the parade route or via TV. “The Pasadena Tournament of Roses is pleased to have AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) participate with a float entry in the 125th Rose Parade,” organizers said in a statement. “Like all of our sponsors and float designers, AHF continues to help make the Rose Parade a premier event through original and creative expressions that connect to parade themes — as this float does.”
LifeSiteNews.com recalled that “last January, a Virginia couple, Nicole Angelillo and Gerald Sapienza, became only the second couple to get hitched during the parade, after winning a contest put on by Farmers Insurance to get married on top of ‘The Love Float.’ Only heterosexual couples were eligible for the Farmers Insurance contest last year, since Proposition 8 had not yet been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
The insurance company had plans to repeat the contest with another wedding float this year, but changed its mind for some unexplained reason, “announcing it would honor teachers with its float instead,” reported LifeSiteNews.
Photo of the Jan. 1, 2013 Rose Parade: AP Images
