Don't Kiss The Evil Preacher

A 74 year-old North Carolina woman has been charged with assault for kissing an anti-gay preacher demonstrating outside a gay pride event.

Joan Parker admits she kissed a preacher on the cheek at the event, proclaimed by the Salisbury mayor as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Day. "He was just waving his arms and has a Bible in one hand, up and down, and screaming at the top of his lungs, `sodomites' and `you're going to hell,"' Parker said in a phone interview. "I thought he needed a hug. So I gave him a hug." At some point, Parker said, the preacher turned to yell to a man with a camera to take a picture of her. Also at some point, she kissed him. On the cheek, she said, not on the mouth. "He claims I kissed him on the lips, and he's a damned liar," said Parker, who is from Colfax and said he was at the event with her husband to show support. "I believe I did kiss him on his cheek." The preacher, James Edward Belcher of Taylorsville, said he never claimed Parker kissed him on the lips, but that's only because he turned his face as she came toward him.

Police estimate that 200 anti-gay protesters attended the small pride event, which saw only 2000 LGBT attendees.