OCALA PRIDE A SUCCESS!

What makes a booth at pride a success? Is it the number of people that stop by? Maybe the number of people that sign up for our mailings, or maybe it is a success because you just made it through the day with no mishaps. For me what constitutes success is the quality of the discussions that take place at the table and the contacts that you make.

The Ocala pride is a very small pride event compared to other events that PLAGAL has participated in. I would venture to say that it is probably the smallest pride event that we participate in. Despite it's size Ocala pride is probably where I have had the most serious discussions on the issue of abortion and where I have made the most contacts than at any other pride event that I have participated in. I am not saying that everyone I talked to shares my belief on the issue of abortion, because they don't. However, there is a greater willingness to put aside differences here so that we can work together to help women than at any other event that PLAGAL has participated in. This year PLAGAL Ocala has added two more very important contacts to our list of groups that could work with us to help women and thier unborn. One was with someone who works with domestic violence victims. We talked at great length about the number of women who her group services that are pregnant. We talked about the leading cause of death of pregnant women and how when pregnancy is put in the mix the rate of abuse goes up. The other was with an HIV/AIDS education and awareness group and we talked about pregancy and HIV/AIDS. We talked about treatements for women who are pregnant and the better outcome for thier children than is past years. Both of these groups service women who could very easily fall victim of abortion through corhearsion or out of a lack of knowledge of all resources available to them. Maybe if we form working relationships with these groups we can help women together so that they can have life affirming choices.

I would say this was a great pride event.