THis Pride Kicks Off with Festive Events and Bias From Haters
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In Poulsbo, Washington, 14 Pride banners were slashed. On X, the Colorado Republican Party posted: “Burn all the #pride flags this June.” And in Carlisle, Massachusetts, 200 Pride flags were stolen from the town center.
All the attacks on the symbol of LGBTQ visibility — the rainbow flag — took place within a week of the start of Pride month. They are just the latest examples of what some revelers across the country say are new and shocking levels of hostility and pushback on a globally recognized commemoration.
The hate is even cropping up in what many considered LGBTQ safe spaces: In Mitchell, South Dakota, a Methodist church known for its embrace of the LGBTQ community was vandalized with graffiti of a Bible verse condemning homosexuality and the word “ABOMINATION” in bright red spray paint on the sidewalk. “I just feel like it’s progressively getting worse and worse,” said Heather Cain, 41, who started a GoFundMe page to help pay for repairs to the vandalized church, the Congregational United Church of Christ, in her hometown of Mitchell. ”The louder and prouder the LGBTQ community gets, the angrier people get. The more we have rights, the more people don’t want us to have that or be happy about having it.”
The recent incidents are the culmination of growing hostility over the last few years, during which hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced by state lawmakers and many seem emboldened by the charged rhetoric now commonplace on social media. In 2021, authorities arrested a Long Island man who they said threatened to attack New York City’s annual Pride march with “firepower” that would “make the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting look like a cakewalk.” And in 2022, police arrested 31 people affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front for suspicion of rioting at a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Last year, there were at least 145 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault directed at LGBTQ people and events across the country during Pride Month, according to the LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD.
While pushback against Pride Month is not necessarily a new phenomenon, some LGBTQ people say this year still feels “different.”
Joshua McKinney-Zarrilli, 53, said he has for years posted a message on social media at the start of Pride Month to show gratitude for the progress the country has made on LGBTQ rights. Following the tradition, he posted an image of a rainbow flag on his Instagram and Facebook accounts on Saturday with the message: “Proud to be a Gay American. Happy Pride Month.”
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For the first time, he said, his since-deleted post on Facebook received about three dozen negative comments from people he did not know, including one that said he should feel bad for posting an image of a flag that promotes pedophilia. McKinney-Zarrilli, who grew up in a conservative area of Kentucky, said the message he received about homosexuality when he was younger was, “God hates the sin, but he loves the sinner.” His family, he said, had communicated that “we’re still going to love you, no matter what.” Now, however, he said he feels like the broader message he’s received this Pride Month, particularly on social media, has been, “We don’t hate the sin, we hate you and what this is doing to our country.’”
McKinney-Zarrilli, who now lives in New York City, said the backlash his post received and the current political climate has made him second-guess going to the annual NYC Pride march this month due to safety concerns.
The recent incidents are the culmination of growing hostility over the last few years, during which hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced by state lawmakers and many seem emboldened by the charged rhetoric now commonplace on social media. In 2021, authorities arrested a Long Island man who they said threatened to attack New York City’s annual Pride march with “firepower” that would “make the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting look like a cakewalk.” And in 2022, police arrested 31 people affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front for suspicion of rioting at a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Last year, there were at least 145 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault directed at LGBTQ people and events across the country during Pride Month, according to the LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD.
While pushback against Pride Month is not necessarily a new phenomenon, some LGBTQ people say this year still feels “different.”
Joshua McKinney-Zarrilli, 53, said he has for years posted a message on social media at the start of Pride Month to show gratitude for the progress the country has made on LGBTQ rights. Following the tradition, he posted an image of a rainbow flag on his Instagram and Facebook accounts on Saturday with the message: “Proud to be a Gay American. Happy Pride Month.”
For the first time, he said, his since-deleted post on Facebook received about three dozen negative comments from people he did not know, including one that said he should feel bad for posting an image of a flag that promotes pedophilia. McKinney-Zarrilli, who grew up in a conservative area of Kentucky, said the message he received about homosexuality when he was younger was, “God hates the sin, but he loves the sinner.” His family, he said, had communicated that “we’re still going to love you, no matter what.” Now, however, he said he feels like the broader message he’s received this Pride Month, particularly on social media, has been, “We don’t hate the sin, we hate you and what this is doing to our country.’”
McKinney-Zarrilli, who now lives in New York City, said the backlash his post received and the current political climate has made him second-guess going to the annual NYC Pride march this month due to safety concerns.
In the weeks leading up to Pride Month, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a warning that foreign terrorist groups could target Pride events domestically, and the State Department issued a similar warning about terrorism taking place at Pride events abroad. “I don’t want to be pushed back in the closet because of hateful people,” McKinney-Zarrilli said.
Tez Anderson, 65, went to his first Pride march in New York City in 1983. The event changed his life, he said, prompting him to dedicate his life to LGBTQ and HIV activism.
Anderson said that despite today’s pushback, he’s optimistic about the future of Pride Month and LGBTQ rights generally, noting that there are more people out of the closet than ever before. The percentage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer adults in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 7.6% in 2023, according to a Gallup report released in March.
“We have to not get too excited or worked up about these current threats because I’ve seen these threats happen over and over again,” Anderson said. “They get a little more intense every time because we are kind of everywhere now, which I see as an enormous sign of progress.”
from NBC Out
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