Pride Month is kicking off with a request for a “Straight Pride” parade in Boston, and actor Chris Evans, who hails from the city, took a dig at the event.
Chris Evans (Image: INQUIRER.net Stock Photo)
The “Straight Pride” parade is organized by Super Happy Fun America, which “advocates on behalf of the straight community in order to foster respect and awareness with people from all walks of life.” The three organizers–John Hugo, Mark Sahady and Chris Bartley–have ties to conservative politics.
Hugo, a Republican candidate who ran for Congress in 2018, is listed as the president of Super Happy Fun America. He states on the website that “Straight people are an oppressed majority.”
He did not mention the issues or circumstances that oppress straight people.
The group targets August 2019 for the parade and plans to have the same route as the Boston Pride Parade.
Hollywood actors on ‘Straight Pride’ parade
In a tweet on Wednesday, June 5, the Captain America actor said: “Wow! Cool initiative, fellas!! Just a thought, instead of ‘Straight Pride’ parade, how about this: The ‘desperately trying to bury our own gay thoughts by being homophobic because no one taught us how to access our emotions as children’ parade? Whatta ya think? Too on the nose??”
https://twitter.com/ChrisEvans/status/1136264161539833856
He also tweeted about the “false equivalencies” being made about Pride parade for the LGBTQ community and one for straight people, quoting a statement by health and fitness expert James Fell.
https://twitter.com/ChrisEvans/status/1136276905186013184
Fell said on Facebook on Tuesday: “A big reason why I like being straight is that I’ve never once experienced bigotry for my sexuality…There is nothing I ever had to fight for, or struggle against, because I’m straight. And therefore, isn’t any reason to take pride in it.”
The Super Happy Fun America website originally listed actor Brad Pitt as its mascot. Pitt has stressed that his name and likeness cannot be used, a source said, according to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, June 6.
A statement on Thursday, June 7, said it has replaced Pitt with British far-right writer Milo Yiannopoulos.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a Democrat, said in a tweet on Thursday that the parade does not have a permit yet, but that the city “cannot deny a permit based on an organization’s values.”
Walsh encouraged attendance at the Boston Pride Parade on Saturday, June 8. Niña V. Guno /ra
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