BOISE, Idaho — A minor confrontation broke out at the controversial “Hetero Awesome Fest” on Saturday when a protester took the stage and began singing a pro-LGBTQ+ song before being removed.
According to several livestreams of the event, including those from Old Street Saloon, the incident occurred during the two-day festival held on June 20-21 in Cecil D. Andrus Park, directly across from the Idaho State Capitol. Mark Fitzpatrick, owner of the Old State Saloon and organizer of the event, rushed the stage and took the microphone from the man after about a minute of singing.
I feel like this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but… really, I don’t see a problem with these people having this event, and I think the person who got up to sing the pro-LGBTQ+ song was in the wrong here. But let me explain before you crucify me.
It’s pride month, and they have anti-LGBTQ+ views. Holding their own event for people with similar views is by far preferable to going and causing problems at pride events, and while I don’t agree with their views, I support their freedom to hold them, given they aren’t causing problems for others, which it sounds like they weren’t.
An LGBTQ+ person “crashing” their event isn’t really any different from an anti-LGBTQ+ person crashing a pride event, which I’d obviously have a problem with, so I think it’d be somewhat hypocritical to applaud someone for doing it to these people, however much I disagree with their viewpoint.
Edit: Yep, knew it’d be unpopular. Rather than just downvoting me, though, why not tell me why you disagree?
I’m against giving hatred and bigotry a platform. It’s like saying “let the Nazis have their event, I support their freedom to gather, as long as they’re not causing problems for others.”
Them gathering is causing problems. We’re on the forefront of changing centuries of human rights violations, and tolerating other people’s intolerance will only get in the way of real change.
Because I don’t even know where to start. The biggest part, I suppose, is that if you give them a space like this, it normalizes the movement. People stop feeling like there is something wrong with disliking the LGBT community, the movement grows as it is no longer stigmatized, and LGBT rights backslide.
Furthermore, holding a “hetero pride” festival during pride month is inherently bigoted as well. Pride month exists because straight people wouldn’t let gay people express themselves otherwise. Your idea isn’t totally unlike the idea of letting klansmen openly hold festivals during Black History month so they stop harassing black people.
@MossyFeathers I encourage you to read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Which, despite the title, is mostly about AVOIDING conflict. He discusses this subject, though not exactly. Cornering people is dangerous and foolish, and an invitation to violence. Unless you’re ready to DESTROY someone, just leave them alone.
@MossyFeathers Okay, so what is your alternative proposal? Send them to re-education camps to learn the right way to think (or at least fake it)? Round them and up fire them into the Sun? Maybe put them in concentration camps? What? Let’s hear some ideas.
Like it or not, a free world means putting up with other people’s shit, and that requires giving them space. Punishing people in what they consider their own space is only going to make things worse.
Don’t stoop to your opponents’ tactics.
But it’s pride month, we can let bigots be bigots for a moment. We’re already fighting them the rest of the year.
To start with your first sentence is stupid and it goes downhill from there. Pride moth exists as a response to being silenced and prosecuted for centuries. Straight people don’t need an event to show they deserve to exist because they already run the show and having an event to celebrate as a counter to pride month is just rubbing in historical oppression. Crashing each other’s events is nowhere near the same thing due to context.
A hetero celebration event during pride month is like having a confederate celebration on Juneteenth.
That is why you are being downvoted, and nobody else explained because odds are you won’t understand and just dig your heels in deeper.
PRIDE MOTH YOU SAY
Tis the good stuff
I think my viewpoint is akin to the Nazi bar analogy. I don’t want to drink at a Nazi bar, but I’m glad the Nazi bar exists, because it gives the Nazis somewhere to go that’s isolated and away from everyone else. I’d rather these people hold their own event and congregate there than go protest at a pride parade or whatever else they might be doing, and I don’t think ‘kicking the hornet’s nest’ by trying to disrupt them is really helping anyone. Case in point, I’d never heard about them before, and wouldn’t have if this article hadn’t been written, which it wouldn’t have been if nobody had crashed the event.
You never EVER give hateful ideologies room to breathe and organize. It spreads like a virus if you don’t kill it on the spot.
WTF, the Nazi bar analogy wasn’t supposed to be in support of the creation of Nazi bars. Are you okay? Did you recently hit your head? What the fuck have you been smoking?
What a terrible opinion to have.
Lmfao I made the Nazi sympathizer comment before you posted this one. I really hit the nail on the head, eh?
Well, to answer your other comment, it’s replies like this that made me realize it’s just not worth trying to have a discussion with the folks who disagree with me, because I won’t change their mind, and they won’t change mine. I think you (and the majority of folks replying here) are not considering the simple fact that taking away spaces occupied by people you dislike will not make them go away - it’ll just make them try to take over your spaces, instead (hence the Nazi bar analogy).
Regardless, I’m not going to engage any further here. If you want to have a rational discussion, you can DM me and I’ll happily discuss it with you. I had my say, everyone else had theirs, and I don’t really think there’s anything more that needs to be said.
It used to be acceptable to wear Nazi attire in public, now it’s not. I can see where you’re coming from stating that people are going to do what they want, it reminds me of my feelings towards certain drugs being illegal. However I’ll stand by my argument that we need to speak up against bigotry and hatred, not prop it up or defend it. I think it’s important that not only are these people allowed to organize and gather, but that we actively oppose them and create a hostile environment for them.
I’m not going to DM you because you’ve already shared the fact that you’re unwilling to change your mind. I wonder what your childhood self would say if you shared that you were that closed minded, and brazenly open about the fact that not even facts and logic could convince you to change. As much as I believe in what I say, I won’t say that no one can change my mind. I implore you to look inward and be better my guy.
@Nurse_Robot I encourage you to read Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War, just as one source of the human nature of conflict.
It is dangerous folly to corner people as you seem to be suggesting. Like it or not, people you hate are also human beings, with all the same rights you wish to have. If you seek to deprive them of their own space, they WILL come for yours; indeed, they will have little choice.
You cannot petulantly demand or try to require that people or views you don’t like have no peace.
@wesdym@mastodon.social
No.
I didn’t say I was unwilling to change my mind; I said that it became clear that it wasn’t going to be changed by the people replying. If you want to debate it, my DMs are open, but leave the ad hominem attacks out of it or it’ll be a very short discussion.
You said your mind won’t be changed. Using your own words against you doesn’t amount to an ad hominem. I’m not going to let you gaslight me into a private discussion despite your insistence; you can be public with your discussion, or you can stop replying, but I’m not taking the bait and playing your game.
@KoboldCoterie Same here. And this was figured out thousands of years ago. Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War cautions against boxing people in and giving them no escape.
Like it or not, neo-nazis are humans just like us, with all the same rights. No one’s getting shot into the Sun. We all have to somehow manage to share this tiny speck of cosmic dust, or we’re ALL doomed.
Just let the nazis have their fucking bar, and leave them alone there.
I mean, they are calling it a “Hetero Awesome” event. Which is fine, as straight people are awesome! But so are the gays.
If these folks are so triggered by someone singing a pro-LGBTQ+ song, though, it makes me think it was never about how awesome anyone is in the first place. It seems more to be about “Gays are not awesome like we are” than “We’re awesome”. See how the message is different?
I bet if a Straight Ally showed up at a Pride event singing a song about how awesome Straight People are, nobody would have a problem with that, as long as it wasn’t trying to dunk on some other group in the process.
(Now, that is leading me to wonder what the most “Hetero Awesome” song might be. What song would you pick as the Straight People Anthem?)
Wonderwall. It’s Wonderwall.
After all
You’re my wonderwalllll
@dhork People forget that ‘Pride’ is called that because it was a reaction to a culture that tried to shame us. It means, “We are NOT ashamed to be who we really are.” Early Pride events were called marches, not parades, and there was little or no fun involved, just unity. And you could be legally fired, evicted, or expelled for participating, and many of us were. We don’t forget that.
Some butthurt or very immature RWNJs came up with ‘Straight Pride’, which they think is hilariously clever.
Ram Ranch
You acted like you were being downvoted and no one was willing to have a discussion with you, and then you ignored the vast majority of well spoken, detailed, lengthy replies you got. You’re trolling.
I think they should be allowed to have this festival and also I think I should be allowed to crash it and fuck a load into the cheating closeted husbands
“Not gay, just SSA.” Go to Salt Lake. You’ll find plenty of them.
@KoboldCoterie Looongtime queer activist here, and I agree with you completely. In fact, the action was an illegal infringement on someone’s lawful permit, no matter how sincere. Freedom means – indeed, REQUIRES – putting up with other people’s shit. Our laws necessarily defend that.
I’m saying all this as an activist and legal asst of more than 40 years. You are legally correct, and I also agree with you morally and philosophically.
Just leave other people alone.
Yep. You’re meant to incarcerate or banish people you don’t like. Going to where they congregate to attack or shame them is a very unwise move. Let them have their little groups, away from normal people
If they are congregating to promote hate and bigotry then going to attack and shame them is a wise move, even if they try to pretend their congregation is for something positive. An easy we to tell is that it is pretending to be positive is if the ‘celebration’ is a reaction to a group that has been discriminated against trying to celebrate who they are.