Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Kansas city woman assaulted at Omaha pride
06.30.2009 4:40pm EDT
(Omaha) A Kansas City woman was assaulted during Omaha’s Pride Parade earlier in the month reports the Pitch. Kendra Konrady was placed in a headlock by 66-year-old Omaha resident William Crilly after she threw Human Rights Campaign stickers at the man’s float.
Konrady had travelled to Omaha as a volunteer for the Human Rights Campaign. She had been walking along the parade route passing out stickers when she saw Crilly’s float. The man had a rainbow colored wagon with a banner on it saying “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord.”Konrady was attacked after she threw several stickers with the HRC emblematic equal sign on them into Crilly’s float.
“He had me in a head lock and I was kind of flailing,” she said. “I’m a pacifist through and through, but this dude just attacked me.”
Crilly was arrested for assault following the incident. As news spread of the event, parade goers flocked to the HRC’s booth, which signed up 159 new members following Konrady’s attack.
Being born & raised in Independence, (KC Metro area), this comes as NO SHOCK to me. The ‘Bible-Beaters’ and ‘Do-Right’s’ of the Midwest have what I like to call, a selective reaction to homosexuality & will NEVER change. You have the Snooty Johnson County Republicans (Do-Rights) on the Kansas side & the mixed Democrat/Republican on the Missouri side throwing the Bible @ you, “Adam & Eve, not Adam & Steve”. If it is someone else’s child, they will say that it s the way the parents raised them, if it is their own child, they sometimes praise/love the child greater OR kick them out of the house for fear of getting AIDS. Welcome to my world & MANY MANY Others… …I moved from that dreadful city 15 years ago & haven’t looked back. Thank god!
I use to love in Omaha, and I know the organizer of this years parade. I questioned him about this incident and he said “It seems it was a sort of anti-gay float, but it was in rainbow colors, and he paid the fee and filed the paperwork. It was subtly disguised. The Bible verse alone is a standard verse and is about sin in general. We had a number of churches who are supportive and he masqueraded as one of those….We have a policy of acceptance of differing opinions as long as it is not overt, hateful, and violent, his met the criteria. While I had suspicions,…..I approved it…… I will not stoop to their level and, from the publicity we got, I made the right decision.” So, this is the story and even though this man assaulted a woman on the parade route, my friend showed acceptance, as we all preach to others. The situation is horrible, but Mr. Crilly will get his just punishement when the case is brought to court.
I think that what we need is more Christ-like Christians speaking out loudly and proudly because right now the entire field seems to be dominated by hate-mongering Christians — they seem to be the ones talking the loudest and occupying the seats on the talk shows and filling up the columns in the newspapers. Why are the caring, loving Christians so very, very quiet in the face of the hate spewed by their (Christian) brethren? Although I’m atheist (just like my grandparents, so it’s not something new I adopted “just because” I’m gay), I’m always surprised by how quiet and polite loving Christians are while the hateful ones don’t seem to mind yelling and offending at all.
Still do not throw things at someone and expect them not to do anything. Both were wrong.
The wagon looked like a COFFIN, if no one else has seen the pics. A coffin wrapped in a rainbow flag, the way our fallen soldiers have their coffins wrapped with the U.S. flag.
From what I read though there is nothing to suggest that this was an anti-gay float. It was rainbow colored and had a pro-Christian theme. The old codger didn’t need to put the lady in a headlock, but at the same time, it was also not her place to go tossing her stickers at his float either. If she had a problem with it then she shouldn’t take matters into her own hands like this.