A “Straight Pride Parade” has been approved by Boston’s City Council, although the announcement by the man who organized it has largely been met with mockery and derision, Yahoo News reports.
June is Pride Month when the LGBTQ community celebrates itself through parades, protests, educational events, and the like. Boston is no exception. As the city’s WCBV-TV reports, the LGBTQ community in Boston will be holding their own Gay Pride Parade this Saturday.
However, some Boston residents appear to believe that these parades leave the non-LGBTQ community out. Uniting under the group Super Happy Fun America , which has a website and a Facebook page , a few members of Boston’s straight community planned at least one event to act as a sort of counter-protest to Pride Month.
The sequence of events leading up to the approval of Boston’s Straight Pride Parade remains unclear. In an April 2o post on Super Happy Fun America’s website, the organization claimed that it had requested that its “Straight Pride Flag” be hung outside City Hall, a request which was denied, as CBS News reports. In response to that denial, the group decided that a Straight Pride Parade is “the best way to promote our community and its diverse history, culture, and identity.”
Y’all … not only is there a Straight Pride Parade, there’s also a “Straight Pride Flag,” which they claim has represented the straight community for 0.4 years!!! pic.twitter.com/qYFikDOLrQ
— ???????? ????? ????? ???? (@mathewrodriguez) June 5, 2019
However, all information about the group’s planned activities and the city’s purported denials come from the group itself, and thus cannot be independently confirmed. No major, reputable news organization has reported that Boston has approved, denied, or even received such requests.
Regardless, it seems that the city has, indeed, approved a Straight Pride Parade. In a Facebook post, user Mark Sahady confirmed that Boston has approved Super Happy Fun America’s request for a parade, and even showed the planned route.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218080595461811&set=a.10203443387340756&type=3&theater
Not everyone is amused, however. On Twitter, users are having great fun at the parade organizers’ expense.
“I’m missing the ‘straight’ persecution and the historical riot that broke out because of it,” wrote one user.
“Boston has a straight pride parade everytime a sports team wins. CUT THE S**T,” wrote another.
Meanwhile, pro-LGBTQ news organization The Advocate points out that the group’s president, John Hugo, has called non-LGBTQ people an “oppressed majority.”
“For [LGBTQ people] everything is based upon identity and whether or not one is categorized as a victim or an oppressor. If you get victim status then you are entitled to celebrate yourself and expect those with oppressor status to defer to your feelings,” he said in a previous interview.
Boston’s Straight Pride Parade is tentatively scheduled to take place on August 31, long after Pride Month has ended.
