I’ve heard a lot of people complain that straight people are taking over the gay Halloween block party on Cedar Springs, but apparently there’s an even bigger threat: the Hare Krishnas. Instant Tea-bagger Mark Giesh passed along a link this morning to a story about the block party from ISKCON News Weekly, which is the official news agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. And get this, according to IKSCON, Dallas is the No. 2 gay capital in the U.S. behind only San Francisco! It says so right there in the first paragraph. Anyhow, ISKCON goes on to report that about 100 Hare Krishna devotees from Dallas’ temple attended the block party, which their priest later described as not “quite as debauched as the media made it out to be.” As you can see from the above video, posted on the ISKCON Web site, the Hare Krishnas received a pretty good response as they moved through the crowd singing and dancing. And if you were among those who danced along with them, there’s some really good news at the end:
At 2:30am, police finally approached the devotees and asked them to stop. “The festival is supposed to end at 2am,” they said. “But if you don’t stop your chanting, nobody will leave.” At a temple lecture the next day, Giriraj Swami remarked on how everyone had gotten Krishna’s mercy through His holy names.
Mishra Bhagavan Dasa agreed, citing a talk ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada had given in New York in 1976. “He said that once someone dances in a Harinama, Krishna takes note of it and makes sure that person soon goes back home, back to Godhead.”
Ooh, and I thought they were dressed as Slumdog Millionaire.
For several years, I’ve read that statement about Dallas being the #2 place for gays in various unrelated places. I’m guessing it must be in some reference work somewhere?
I don’t know what all the Hare Krishna beliefs are, but I’ll take it that going “back to Godhead” is a good thing.
If so, it’s a refreshing change from the Christian fundamentalists who come to gay areas with signs saying “God hates f*s” or “Matthew Shepherd in hell” or “Gay is NOT ok”, or “Repent or burn in hell” or “Gays needs a good whipping from cowboys”, etc.
Even our Dallas mayor is now under the spell of the First Baptist Church that chooses to spend its money on bill boards and expensive newspaper ads saying “Gay is NOT ok”.
While I don’t know much about the Hare Krishnas, I know people sometimes like to label them as a cult, but given their attitude compared with the attitude of the supposedly mainstream Christians fundamentalists, I’m beginning to think maybe the Christian fundamentalist are the ones that are the cult.
Well, Mark, the Hare Krishna’s take on the LGBT community is not quite what you think. They were there to save the sinners in their own unique fashion. While there are many different Hare Krishna organizations with different attitudes towards LGBTs, the one pictured above — ISKCON, which is the largest and most prominent organization — is very homophobic. See https://harekrishnawomen.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/its-raining-men/