The organiser said Straight Pride was a “totally peaceful racist group.” (Modesto News/ YouTube)
The organiser of a Straight Pride event was heckled at a city council meeting on Wednesday (August 7) for slipping up and saying that he was part of a “racist group.”
Don Grundmann is the founder of the “National Straight Pride Coalition,” and is trying to hold the rally in Modesto, California, on August 24.
It appears that Grundmann was at the Modesto City Council meeting to defend the event, but instead he said: “We haven’t done anything. We’re a totally peaceful, racist group.”
This led to the audience and council members bursting out in laughter, with the audience then heckling and booing Grundmann.
According to its website: “The purpose of the California Straight Pride Coalition is to defend the children… preventing the current and future generations of all races and colors from being destroyed by the inherent malevolence of the Homosexual Movement.”
The “Homosexual Movement,” it says, is attacking many things including “Western civilisation,” “nationalism” and “Caucasians.”
It lists events, including the Straight Pride rally, as “War activities” and has previously protested two “Drag Queen Story Hour” events at public libraries.
Straight Pride organiser Don Grundmann said that being gay was a “culture of death”
Grundmann has, in the past, reportedly also founded an organisation called “Citizens Against Perversion.”
Interviewed on Christian online radio show The Worldview, Grundmann said that being gay was a “culture of death.”
Co-organiser of the Modesto rally and Grundmann’s long-time friend, Mylinda Mason, has a gay son.
Matthew Mason, 28, has organised a pro-LGBT candlelight vigil to oppose the planned event.
He told the Modesto Bee: “They believe Western Civilization should be straight, white and Christian with a very specific gender binary. They believe this should be a culture war. It’s rhetoric I’ve heard my whole life.”
Mason also expressed concerns that other organisers have links to the far-right Proud Boys group, branding the event “white supremacy masquerading as straight pride.”