Pride and Bigotry

Jesus would not approve

I encountered a hateful bigot at a Pride Festival last night, and I did not let that shit slide.

I’m in Vernon, British Columbia, a small resort city of about 40,000. It’s a bit redneck. Lotta big trucks and guys with backward-facing baseball caps and wrap-around sunglasses. It’s Pride Week.

My wife, my daughter, and I went to Polson’s Park for a big Pride event; I was wearing my “I love gay people and carbs” T-shirt. There were tons of booths selling various wares, and a drag show. The park was full of a happy, loving crowd; there were lots of kids too. At one point the organizer spoke, holding back tears, of how the event far exceeded their expectations. Everyone was just so easy going and having a great time.

I was standing at a booth, looking over the various wares for sale. The proprietor was sitting in a chair and another woman was standing near me also looking at items she might want to purchase. Then another woman came up to her from the outside of the booth and started yammering at her from across the table.

This offending woman was short and, excuse the description but it’s what comes to mind, frumpy. She was about 50. In her hand she held a sheet of white printer paper and began reading from it. I didn’t catch a lot of what she said except that Jesus was mentioned a few times and it was obvious she was preaching.

The young woman she was preaching to got a “What the fucking fuck?” look on her face and politely said, “Uh, I’m not really interested.” The Bible thumper kept preaching. “Yeah, I don’t think we’re interested,” I added. She didn’t shut up, so I looked at the proprietor, who had a confused / disgusted look on her face. I knew the answer when I asked, “Is she affiliated with you?” “Definitely not,” she replied.

“Okay,” I said, feeling I now had permission to police the situation. “You’re interfering with this woman’s ability to run her business, and no one here is interested in what you have to say, so take it somewhere else.”

“You’d be surprised at how many people are interested in what I have to say,” she said.

“Well, we’re definitely not.”

As she moved away from the booth the religious woman said, “You people are supporting a lifestyle that spreads leprosy and other horrible diseases.” My jaw dropped and the proprietor said, “WHAT did you just say?”

“You need to leave,” I said. I was kinda flabbergasted at what I’d just heard and that’s why I didn’t say “You need to get the fuck out of here.” She yammered something I don’t remember, and I repeated, “You need to leave this place. No one wants you here. Just leave. Now.”

“Are you going to be the one to make me leave?” she asked me.

And I thought about it for a moment. Had it been a man, you bet your ass I would have. But I didn’t think it would look good a muscular six-foot-tall man wrangling a short middle-aged woman out of a Pride event. So, I said, “No. But I’m getting security and they sure as shit will.” Finally found my sweary voice.

I hustled over to the organizers, quickly told them what happened and asked about security. They said there were a pair of police at the event. The organizer came with me as we went to find the Jesus freak, but she’d disappeared. I looked for her for several minutes, but I think as soon as I told her about fetching security, she decided her hateful version of the Lord wasn’t worth getting arrested for hate speech and she fled the scene.

I did end up talking to the cops, telling them what happened. When I got to the part about “leprosy and other horrible diseases” the female officer said, “She said what? I really want to find this woman.” About half an hour later I ran into the cops again and she asked me if I’d seen the woman. I said no and that I figured she’d split as soon as I told her I was getting security. We got to chatting and I said I didn’t think it would be cool if I was seen strong-arming a small woman out of the Pride event and the cop said, “Oh I don’t know in this case I think it would have been all right.” I laughed. Then she told me about how earlier in the week a woman had come into her station to say that gay people were sinning against God and the cops needed to go out and arrest them all. She said she replied to the crazy with, “You need to get the fuck out of my station.”

Aside from that one religious wingnut, it was a great time. My wife saw some old truck-driving conservative-looking dudes on the perimeter of the event looking on in disapproval and saying shit like “They’re everywhere. Look, there’s another one.” My wife gave them a dirty look and they left. That was it. Within the festival it was just a great time with lots of sweet puppy dogs, a cute little kitten, and a friendly goat.

Don’t be a hateful bigot. Jesus would not approve. If you want to learn more about the history of Pride and the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, there are a number of such sweary stories in my book. On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down comes out on October 10 and you can pre-order it here.