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A “Straight Pride” event took place in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Modesto, California, on Saturday without a permit, and though the event attracted its share of protesters, it proved to be a remarkably peaceful event.
According to CBS Sacramento, police were on “high alert” during Saturday’s event as a crowd formed on McHenry Avenue. Modesto police estimated the entire crowd at about 200 people, with more than 100 members of the LGBTQ community in attendance to protest the event.
“They want to shut us down with violence they want to threaten us with violence that they’ll hurt us and we aren’t going to be intimidated,” event organizer Don Grundmann said at the rally.
But despite threats made against the event, there were no clashes, and both the rally and counterprotests remained peaceful. Though the two sides argued for more than an hour over the event’s message, no citations were issued and no arrests were made.
Last month, the National Straight Pride Coalition filed an application to host its Straight Pride Parade in Modesto’s Graceada Park, but the permit was denied on August 9 after the group had difficulties obtaining liability insurance, the Modesto Bee reported. K&K Insurance Group reportedly issued liability insurance for the rally, but then voided it after speaking with Modesto officials on August 8.
City spokesman Thomas Reeves denies the city had anything to do with the insurance being voided. He claims instead the insurance company simply does not insure such events, citing the company’s website, which states K&K is a “leading provider of coverage for the sports, leisure, recreation, entertainment, and motorsports industries.”
“We did not ask them to cancel the insurance,” he affirmed.
Grundmann is not convinced, claiming the “well has been poisoned” against the organizers and the rally.
Grundmann’s suspicions are not entirely unfounded. City officials made their opposition to the event clear when the coalition applied for the permit. District 3 council member Kristi Ah You was one of the more outspoken critics of the event. She expressed her opposition to the rally because of the National Straight Pride Coalition’s declarations of the superiority of “whiteness/caucasian.”
“I don’t think we need to give a permit for anything that when you go to the page it talks about whiteness, it talks about Western Civilization, it talks about being Caucasian,” Ah You told CBS in July. “That’s all hate crime stuff to me, that’s not okay.”
According to the group’s website,
The purpose of the California Straight Pride Coalition is to defend the children noted above [a picture of babies of different ethnicities]. This is inclusive of preventing the current and future generations of all races and colors from being destroyed by the inherent malevolence of the Homosexual Movement toward our founding principles below.
The California division of the National Straight Pride Coalition; in accordance with our national motto of “normal, natural, healthy, sane;” invites all people of good will to join us in supporting, promoting, defending, and celebrating the Divine Design of the following foundational principles of life. These following fundamentals, among many others not mentioned, are under unprecedented, sustained, and coordinated attack within our society, culture, and nation:
Heterosexuality….
God ordained natural nuclear family (one man, one woman, and children)….
Western Civilization….
Caucasians….
Christianity….
Nationalism….
Despite the group’s views, which some hold controversial, the city could not reject the event’s application simply because officials did not support it, lest it would have been accused of discrimination. Reeves did state, however, the city’s decision to host the event would be based in logistics.
“Permits to host any event are granted based on operational feasibility, not based on values and certainly not based on any endorsement of beliefs. So although the city does not share in the beliefs of some groups that choose to hold their events here, we may not be able to deny a permit based on an organization’s values,” Reeves said.
K&K’s decision to withdraw liability insurance for the event is certainly convenient.
Nevertheless, organizers went ahead with the event after assuring supporters it would take place one way or another.
“We are still going to have our event, have our speakers, nationally known speakers, and we are going to do our thing,” Grundmann said one week before the event took place.
The Modesto Bee reports that Reeves did tell organizers they had a right to hold an informal gathering on public property, such as in a park, and did not use equipment like a sound system, which also requires a permit. City officials prepared police for the possibility that an event would take place on August 24.
Another “Straight Pride” event will be taking place on the other side of the country next week. The city of Boston will be hosting its first-ever “Straight Pride” parade on August 31 after it was slapped with a discrimination complaint for initially rejecting the application.
What likely began as trolling to shed light on the absurdity of taking pride in one’s sexuality became a battle for civil rights and equality. Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) proposed a Straight Pride parade to the city officials in Boston and was swiftly rejected, but the group filed a discrimination complaint, forcing the city to concede that it could not deny a group based on its values or beliefs.
Unlike Modesto’s Straight Pride parade, however, Boston’s seems to have a lighter tone. Super Happy Fun America’s website focuses on advocating for inclusivity and equality, claiming that efforts to promote diversity have left the straight majority in the dust.
“Straight people are an oppressed majority,” says John Hugo, president of Super Happy Fun America. “We will fight for the right of straights everywhere to express pride in themselves without fear of judgement and hate. The day will come when straights will finally be included as equals among all of the other orientations.”
Image: screenshot for National Straight Pride Coalition website
