Mansfield Pickle Parade

This is our church float in the local annual Pickle Palooza - this is a tradition that Mansfield has been doing since 2013 and consists of a lot of stalls and a parade through the center of town.  Our church has been expressing God's love and inclusivity particularly towards those who are LGBTQ+ since 2014 and L and I decided to support them this year.  There were 30,000 people at the parade and we walked past them with our placards and smiles to a very surprising positive reception from many in the crowd.  I carried a sign that read "What did Jesus say about being Gay?..... The answer is, of course, nothing.  Anyway, it was a very positive experience and we had some fun together before actually purchasing some tasty pickles on a couple of the many stalls with pickle samples - it was the Pickle Palooza after all.

Otherwise, just finished a second round of papers for school and feeling like I am beginning to cope with the course, not so intimidated but its hard work and have been glad for the spring break this week.  

As part of one of my courses I had to create a Genogram of my family and as a result discovered a remarkable story about one of my ancestors.  I had some of the story before, but it turns out that my great aunt, who we met a couple of times when I was a kid, and who always dressed, it seemed, like a man, did, in fact marry another woman in the Anglican church in 1946 but as John.  They then went on to adopt 2 children.  It may not be that surprising now, though the Church of England still does not allow gay marriage, but even more brave for the reason that at the same time, homosexuality was also illegal in England and Alan Turing  was actually incarcerated about the same time.  I won't go into detail what happened to him here, but you can read about it online.  Remarkable family secret, and I came into possession of the marriage certificate this week and the extra is a photo the happy couple.  My Great Aunt is on the left. :)