Is there a Pride event in any major city that doesn't come with a group of bigots on a microphone?
Sometimes it's not clear whether straight people realize how frequently LGBT people are harassed by the most ardent of bigots.
Actor Jesse Eisenberg happened upon one set of those antigay preachers this Saturday at London Pride. Eisenberg, who played a gay man in American Ultra, can be see in a YouTube video walking up to the group while pushing his city bike, then being asked repeatedly whether his mind is closed.
"Is my mind closed?" he shakes his head. "You're so fucked up."
And he's right, harassment like this makes no sense and yet it's commonplace. The preacher on the loudspeaker is saying what we've all heard -- even after the Orlando massacre -- that punishment for being LGBT is being exacted by God himself.
"We will agree, that God is a god of love, but he's also a god of justice," says the preacher over a loud speaker. "God has his laws. We live in a country where we would say it would be unjust
if criminals were not punished, if robbers were not behind bars, if murderers and pedophiles and all these criminals were not published we would say we live in an unjust..."
This is the regular side show happening just outside the frame of the cameras that focus, rightly, on the joy and celebration of Pride.
And it's also the regular side show happening just outside the mainstream, with numerous fringe pastors and even some lawmakers publicly implying LGBT people deserved what they got in Orlando.
Watch Eisenberg tell them off in the video below:
