HB2 prompts record number of faith groups to join Charlotte Pride Parade

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article97033432.html#storylink=cpy

Christina Woodruff of Huntersville is only 10 years old, but she learned a very grown-up lesson about bigotry this weekend at the Charlotte Pride Festival and Parade in uptown.

“I was just standing there and a man told me that I was a child of the Devil,” said Christina, who is parented by a same sex couple. “I wanted to punch him, but my mom stopped me. I cried instead.”

Conservative religious groups have long provided sideline heckling at Charlotte’s annual gay pride celebration, including a group this year that tried to drown out Mayor Jennifer Roberts during the opening ceremony Saturday.

But things were different this year, thanks in part to growing mainstream opposition to N.C. General Assembly’s House Bill 2, a law that nullified a Charlotte nondiscrimination ordinance that extended protections to LGBT residents.

Conservative Christian groups still showed up to protest, but their message was overwhelmed by a record number of faith groups that came out in opposition of HB2.

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