What the Idaho ‘Hetero Awesome Festival’ organizers don’t understand | Opinion
I have never been spit on for holding my wife’s hand while walking down the street.
I have never been called a slur for kissing her in public.
I have never been enjoying a cocktail at my local watering hole with my wife and our friends when the police bust in and arrest us all, clobbering us with their nightsticks and fists and throwing us in jail.
I have never been afraid of putting a photo of me and my wife on my desk at work, fearful that someone might hate me, call me names under their breath or discriminate against me.
I have never been afraid to talk about my wife in a job interview, fearful that the interviewer won’t hire me.
When my grandfather died, my family was not told that he couldn’t be buried in a plot next to my grandmother.
When my wife and I went to get our marriage license, we weren’t turned away or told we couldn’t get married.
These are the reasons we don’t need a celebration of heterosexuality. We’re not discriminated against, we’re not targeted, we’re not beaten or killed just because of whom we are attracted to.
But these are the reasons we need gay pride celebrations.
Gay and transgender men and women have historically been discriminated against, marginalized, bullied, punished, arrested, jailed, beaten, even killed.
And that discrimination goes on today.
As the Statesman editorial board enumerated recently, the Idaho Legislature passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage, and the Legislature continues to refuse to add the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the Idaho Human Rights Act, refusing to offer gay people protection from being evicted or fired because of who they love. The Legislature refuses to remove language in a constitutional amendment that makes gay marriage illegal, and they didn’t remove the unconstitutional law making it a felony to be gay until three years ago.
But the folks who are organizing a so-called “Hetero Awesome Festival” in Boise in June somehow think they’re the ones under attack.
“We’re a relentless tribe of truth-seekers, swinging hard to defend, honor, and fortify traditional family values against a world gone soft,” according to the group’s website. “With fearless grit and unshakable resolve, we expose the clowns tearing at the family’s core, arming the masses with clarity and rallying the brave to stand tall. Our Battle Lines are set — family’s non-negotiable — and we’re here to fight for it, no retreat, no apologies. The time’s now; the stakes are everything.”
Battle lines? No retreat? No apologies? The stakes are everything? My goodness, such doom and gloom, such fear and anger.
It always strikes me as odd that some people feel like they’re under attack, threatened somehow, that this is a zero-sum game, us vs. them, that if you protect the rights of a certain group of people you somehow are giving up your own rights.
I’ve never felt that my marriage was under attack; I’ve never felt threatened. Preserving the right of my gay friends, neighbors and family members to marry whom they wish in no way infringes on my values or the way I live my life.
What are these people so afraid of?
“This ain’t your limp-wristed woke fest,” organizers declare.
That kind of homophobic perpetuation of stereotypes shows exactly why we have to have pride festivals.
Honestly, I feel sad for the organizers. They’re just ignorant of the struggles of others, and they completely lack any empathy for their neighbors.
“This festival is more than just an event — it’s a declaration that faith, family, and freedom are worth protecting,” according to organizers.
But only certain families and only certain freedoms for certain people.
Of course, I’m not about to jump in the back of a U-Haul van with a bunch of masked marauders or fly pride flags from my F-150, blaring my horn and trying to disrupt their little celebration.
This group has the freedom to do what it wants.
But just don’t hold a festival in the name of my sexual orientation.
I don’t need it.
This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
