The city of Modesto, California, is considering awarding a permit for a straight pride march in a local park Aug. 24 — and some residents are up in arms.
"We've been getting letters, emails, comments, and phone calls all day about it," said council member Kristi Ah You, adding she thinks the event constitutes hate speech, a CBS affiliate in Sacramento reported Tuesday.
"I don't think we need to give a permit for anything that when you go to the page it talks about whiteness, it talks about western civilization, it talks about being Caucasian," she told the affiliate. "That's all hate crime stuff to me; that's not OK."
The man behind the event is Don Grundmann of the National Straight Pride Coalition — and he argues the parade is his group's cultural answer to "anyone that supports the LGBTQ lifestyle."
"Essentially it boils down to two religious views of the world," Grundmann told the affiliate. "One is Christianity, which is represented by heterosexuality, a culture of life, and its opponent is the LGBT movement, which is represented by an opposing religion and an opposing view of life."
A straight pride parade in Boston was also met by controversy in June.