Conway, Arkansas, is a town of about 37,000 people, including 11,000 college students. It is home to the annual Toad Suck Festival, if you're looking for a place to vacation, a celebration of all kinds of Chamber of Commerce approved commercial activities.
Conway is a Chamber of Commerce kind of town, with boosters touting its growth rate and modern industry, wihtout ever losing sight of what's really important:
You'll feel at home in Conway. Located in the heart of Arkansas, Conway is near the crowd without being in it. Here you will find a mixture of tree-lined established neighborhoods and modern subdivisions.
Conway has a public school system, the Chamber says, that is "actively preparing its youth for the trials of the next century," a statement that indicates either that the Chamber website needs to be updated or the city fathers of Conway have extended the local life expectancy, since the next century doesn't start for another 96 years.
As sophisticated and forward-looking as Conway is, there is apparently an element that really doesn't like the idea of progress. Or so it seems, given the reaction of at least some Conwayians (Conwayers?) to a local gay pride parade scheduled for last weekend. This from the Associated Press:
Organizers of a gay pride parade awoke to find the parade route covered in cow manure, but it was cleaned up in time for the event. Police said the dump-truck load was spread at about 6:30 a.m. Sunday. Authorities are investigating, they said, and criminal mischief and littering charges could be filed. City workers scooped and rinsed the manure from the route.The parade attracted about 275 marchers in the town of 26,000 north of Little Rock. It also attracted protesters, many from local churches. Police said there were no injuries or arrests.
"We want to let people know that gay people don't just live in cities," parade organizer John Schenck said. "They live in little towns like Conway and Greenbrier." The street in front of the home of Schenck and his partner, Robert Loyd, also was vandalized with the manure.
While it's tempting to see in Conway little but stereotype, consider this: The city went out of its way to clean the route so the parade could be held, and with 275 participants there had to be a substantial heterosexual contingent in the march.
Yeah, some drunk hillbillies had fun spreading manure over the route. And yeah, some not-particularly-Christian Christians showed up to heckle and berate neighbors they don't approve of. But no one in authority suggested, apparently, that the parade shouldn't be held or that the gays should stay in the closet, and no one showed up with ax handles and fire hoses to keep the gay activists from marching.
That says a lot, I think. It says that gay rights maybe don't have as far to go as some fear. It says, down there in the Bible belt, that goodness and civility still count for something.
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