June 24th was the day of the New York Gay Pride parade. And since the parade commemorates the Stonewall riots which took place in New York (just a few blocks from my apartment), you would expect the New York parade to be the biggest of its kind. And so it is.

The "Grand Marshals" of the parade were Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Reverend Dr. Troy Perry. And leading the march were over 25 floats from various religious organizations, mostly christian but several jewish (this is New York after all). What on earth were the march organizers thinking of?

It seems to me that if you allow religion to dictate the terms of a debate on gay rights you've already lost. Religion is not the friend of gay and lesbian people, and trying to find a "nice" branch of christianity or judaism is not the answer. Religion is the principal weapon used to justify the repression, torture and even murder of gays and lesbians around the world and throughout history. Any response by gays and lesbians other than the total rejection of religion defies justice, dignity and plain common sense.

Apologists like Rabbi Kleinbaum and Bishop Perry do vastly more harm than good – they validate and strengthen the religious message, when that message is overwhelmingly used to the detriment of everyone other than heterosexual men.

Christopher Hitchens got it right when he subtitled his recent book "How Religion Poisons Everything". The organizers of the New York Pride March should invite Hitchens, along with Richard Dawkins, to be next year's Grand Marshals. Neither man is gay, but by working to reduce the influence of religion in society they have done far more to help the cause of gays and lesbians than Rabbi Kleinbaum and Bishop Perry.

I took a lot a photos but not many of them are worth showing. These are some of the better ones.