You can never go wrong with a drag queen. Even less so with a quartet of queens.
So it was as the Second Annual Flagler Pride Festival was nearing its end at Palm Coast’s Central Park Saturday evening, when the crowd–an unexpectedly large, predictably joyful crowd–went wild at four extravagant drag queen performances. Three of the drag queens were down from Hamburger Mary’s in Jacksonville, an LGBT-friendly restaurant chain that started post-Stonewall in the 1970s and is known for their “Dining with Divas” drag show.
Children of all ages were in awe of the queens, running up to give them dollar bills and dance alongside them. “It’s just so important that we have a sense of community away from our city as well. All of Florida needs to band together with everything going on with the government, it’s so important,” said drag queen Eris Farris. “Growing up we didn’t have events like these,” said co-queen Gizzelle Alexandria Cliche, “I love showing support and the community shows us support, so we’re giving back.”
“It took me several years to finally be able to come back home and finally be able to perform in my hometown for pride,” Kyla G’diva Rogue said. “If it wasn’t for every single youth sitting out here, us drag queens really wouldn’t be having anything to perform for, we perform for the young ones.”
Abbey Cooke, a teacher in the Flagler school district, one of the organizers of the event and its exuberant emcee all evening–her exuberance in numerous appearances before the Flagler County School Board isn’t much diminished from what it was Saturday–focused especially on younger people as she recapped the evening in an interview this morning. She cited one example in particular, though there were many, of one teen who had been reluctant to go to the festival, but who by evening’s end was saying he’d never felt as free to be himself.
(© FlaglerLive)
“We’ve all been talking until 1 a.m. on the chat and we started talking again at 8, about how amazing it was,” Cooke said of the post-event discussions, “not only about the community at large but the children, especially the teens. For me as a teacher to see the kids at school normally reserved and be in their shell, for them to be able to come out and be themselves, it was all worth it just for those kids.”
That in part was why School Board member Colleen Conklin was there, with her husband and her father (who was among those who got their vaccine shot, at the festival, courtesy of the Flagler Health Department’s nurses, who held a booth there.) “It’s a beautiful event,” Conklin said, “it’s a display of outpouring of love and pride for the LGBT community and I’m here with my family just to support and show we have love for everyone within the community. So it’s exciting to see it grow and it’ll be interesting to see how it continues to grow next year.”
So not only was this year’s festival a way for LGBTQ+ community members to celebrate Pride Month, but it was a vehicle to broaden the community’s perspectives and push for bigger tents. But it remained at heart a festival even if among the flamboyant live performances, food trucks, friendly games and raffles, hosts of the event encouraged the crowd to register to vote and get vaccinated (if they hadn’t already) at one of the many booths surrounding the stage.
It’s no secret that Flagler doesn’t quite have the reputation for being the most LGBTQ-friendly space on the planet, in the past few years especially. Yet Saturday’s event and its crowds, which by 9 p.m. had totaled between 600 and 800 people, put the lie to the county’s presumed homogeneity: Palm Coast, a city started in the late 1960s as an integrated, post-racial subdivision, is still more diverse than perhaps assumed, and if anything growing more so. Flagler’s LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly community, far from being even homogenously conservative, is no fringe phenomenon.
Last year’s Pride Festival, the first, drew no more than 200 people. “We were expecting around 500” this year, Cooke said. The expectation was easily exceeded Saturday as the event drew attendance from as far away as Lake County–Maranda Perez-Zacarias said she and her family of three adults and two children, who sat between their own fluttering rainbow flags, had drive over from Lake just for the occasion–from Jacksonville, Orlando and Volusia.
Pauline, who attended the event with her partner Ann, won the evening’s the $300 cash prize raffle and donated the money back to the LGBTQ+ community. The couple, who wore matching shirts depicting their love story, have been together for 25 years and residents of Flagler County since 2017. “Pride is for everybody, it’s not just the gay people, it’s everybody. And we love to be around support and have a good time and have fun,” they said. “We just want people to be happy. And if we can, of course we’ll do anything we can to help anyone.”
Theirs was a common refrain during the evening.
“I knew we’d have a pretty good turnout based on what we had last year, but it was much bigger than any of us anticipated in any of the planning committees,” Cooke said. “My biggest fear going in was that there’d be some kind of counter-protest just because we did advertise so much this year. And there wasn’t one. So that was amazing.” The organizers contacted the Sheriff’s Office before the event to find out if they had any protests to worry about. There’d been word of none. The Sheriff’s Office didn’t even send deputies, and there was no police visible at any point in the evening.
Not that the event didn’t draw isolated snickers ad jabs from the usual bigots, among them County Commissioner Joe Mullins, who revels in degrading others not in line with his dogmatic claws. “As far as a large population in Flagler supporting this, the small turnout yesterday shows different,” he wrote on his Facebook page (Facebook had banned Mullins for a few weeks some months ago because of hate speech). “Liberals you are waisting [sic.] your un-valued time trying to create change here.” It isn’t clear what change Mullins does not want from the community, since the community is asking for no more than the rights and freedoms Mullins himself allegedly said Flagler stood for when he felt compelled to make a show of reasserting support for the Constitution, if with notable exceptions.
Politics is never absent from large gatherings any time an election is near, and Saturday evening was no different. Cooke herself, never shy, called for “a school board that is made up of people that believe in science. We need a scoreboard of people that care about all the children, not just the straight white kids,” said Abbey Cooke, one of the pride event’s coordinators, during a welcome speech.
The only mayoral candidate who spoke at the Pride festival was Cornelia Manfre. A resident of Flagler county for 21 years and wife of ex-sheriff Jim Manfre, she addressed the rainbow-colored crowd after she was penciled in as part of the list, when candidate David Alfin pulled out. (Manfre is a Democrat. Alfin is a Republican. Six Republicans and two Democrats are running in the special Palm Coast mayoral election scheduled for July 27.) “Each year we celebrate pride, to call attention to the ways that our gay lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer neighbors helped to make our area brighter, more vibrant, more loving, and more accepting than ever before,” Manfre told the crowd.
“We celebrate pride to stand up for those living, working and contributing to our community. If you now feel fully part of the community, we celebrate pride to remember how far we have come and to unite. As we remember how far we need to go. There are many right here in Palm Coast, who do not understand why we celebrate pride. Some of them are even in our local governments, you know who they are,” she said, criticizing the current local government. She pledged that the LGBTQ community’s voice would be heard, “cherished, appreciated, and considered just as valid as every other single point of view” if she were mayor.
Alfin pulled out, saying he’d been “double booked” at a graduation event (Alfin is president of the Flagler County Education Foundation). But he did so mere hours after a local reactionary group criticized his planned appearance at the festival, calling him a “RINO” (a Republican in name only). Alfin then posted a picture of himself with Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the transgender sport ban on the very first day of Pride Month.
After a performance by the FPC dance team and a quick but joyful dance break from the crowd, Courtney VandeBunte, a new school board candidate, spoke. VandeBunte, already striking cheers from the crowd, said she was “humbled, as well as excited to publicly announce today at Flagler County second annual Pride Day,” that she is running to be on the school board. Born and raised in Flagler County, a teacher for nine years and a mother of three, VandeBunte has the motivation to “welcome any and all support that can foster the growth of my kids and your kids into adulthood, regardless of their personalities, or preferences,” she said. VandeBunte said she’d “ensure that each and every Flagler family, student and staff member is treated with respect and dignity, all school districts should be inclusive to all students and as your school board member I will be an unyielding advocate for inclusion.”
Other serious issues came to light during the festival: Gary Perkins representing the Family Life Center spoke about domestic violence and survivors, claiming the people in attendance “are planting the seed for the city to grow.” Erica Rivera, a sexual health educator in Flagler County, addressed the importance of promoting and providing sex education within the community (days after DeSantis had vetoed a $2 million grant to afford poorer girls and women access to contraceptives).
Between speakers the attendees happily gathered to watch more dancing and singing performances, lined up for refreshments at one of the food trucks, and floated booth to booth to see what each was offering. By the end of the night the Flagler Health Department reported that all the vaccines brought to the event were administered.
Eryn Harris, an Admin of the LGBTQ+ Community of Flagler County Facebook group and coordinator of the Pride event, said the festival was a lot harder to plan compared to the pride walk over the bridge last year. (There’s another Pride walk next Saturday.) Based on this year’s turnout, Harris said she thinks “it means that people in the county need to wake up and realize that we’re here, and that we aren’t homogenous, because a lot of people see Flagler County and they say, that’s the straight white man, Republican county. But we’re a lot more diverse than that.” All the hard work seemed worth the effort as a sea of rainbowed LGBTQ+ members and allies gathered in one spot that afternoon spreading joy into the night. “It’s important to make spaces like this so people feel comfortable, who are LGBT, to come and just be themselves,” Harris said.
One of the more fascinating speakers of the evening, dressed in the most swashbuckling nun’s outfit conceivable, was Sister Bunny Juju with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a San Francisco non-profit. “We’re queer nuns who do things for the community, basically the same thing you would think a normal nun would do, but we specialize in LGBTQ and that kind of thing,” the Sister, a Ponte Vedra resident who travels around with the order and operates out of St. Augustine’s the House of Prism, said. The sisters have houses in Orlando, Tampa and St. Petersburg.
Sister Bunny Juju was among the most distinctive presences at Pride, with a thickly bearded face painted white with a red stripe sluicing down from each eye, then a green and black bandana that loses itself in the more black and rainbow colors of a somewhat v-shaped cape. It wasn’t just for show. There was history and purpose behind it all, as we’d soon find out. Sister wore a dress that leaves uncovered flashes of tattoos that would require an evening’s worth of deciphering. “How long it takes to turn into this?” she says, anticipating a reporter’s question for having been asked so many times. But the question prompts the story behind the make-up, a story that encapsulates the persecution, the empathy and triumphs of a generation.
Sister Bunny Juju explains: “It takes about an hour. And that’s basically all the face. The reason that we do the face is actually a part of our tradition. The original sisters, which were five gay men, they dressed up as nuns around 1979 in San Francisco. Yes, it was San Francisco. And at the time because of persecution and all, they put on the face, that way to protect themselves. That way they could go out and do this. And then later on, whenever they lived in their normal lives, people wouldn’t come and do anything to them simply because of what they were doing. But now it’s more tradition. We all wear the white face, the makeup. Everybody does a face that makes you recognizable. Also, we do it to stick out. Like for instance if there were protesters here, I can draw their attention to me instead of the kids, so the kids can go on and do what they do, and I know how to handle protesters and things like that. A lot of people think that we just do it like it’s like a clown thing. But no, there’s actually a reason behind the face.”
Sister Bunny Juju grew up in Jacksonville and St. Augustine and has been well familiar with Flagler, “so I know what it’s like.” Speaking of the children running around the festival grounds Saturday evening, she continued: “I was one time their age. And that’s another reason I do what I do, is because when I was growing up, I had nobody to look up to. And now I’ve become the person that these kids can look up to. I strive to be that person. Every year things seem to be getting better. I’m always a positive person. I try to look at the good in everything. I know when I was a kid, it was hard growing up. I feel like I wouldn’t say it’s easier for kids nowadays, the kids just have different struggles. But we’re able to have pride festivals. When I was a kid there were no pride festivals. I wasn’t able to go to anything like this. But now more and more are popping up. Hopefully St. Augustine will also get a Pride festival at some point. But I love seeing everybody coming together. It’s definitely getting better.”
jim lang says
What’s this world coming too 😒😒
Spangler says
Some kinda peace. LGBQ has been around since before Jesus was made up. You’d hate to know what it meant to have a mentor in Ancient Greece.
Gina Weiss says
Thank you FlaglerLive for this wonderful heart felt article , we are a diverse community of acceptance despite the haters.
Mike Cocchiola says
What a wonderfully joyous festival. So colorful, so together yet so diverse.
Where were Republican leaders from the PC city council or the BOCC?? Were they afraid to be seen in this crowd? Do they think these good people are not citizens worthy of their attention? Did all of them “double book like David Alfin? All of you all, like him, are cowards who only represent “your kind”. You know, old, white and ignorant.
And you, Joe Mullins, 800 is not a small crowd. Better watch out, Joe, these are voters like any other. Just a bit younger and more activist. You’ll have to face them in 2022.
Gene says
Well that has to be the most disgusting circus of freaks to roll into town since joe Mullins moved here. Great example to set for our kids. A full blown orgy of decadence and sin on full display in bright shiny colors. Ringling brothers and Ripley’s couldn’t have put on a better freak show.
Al Eye says
There was an orgy? I was there the whole time, and I guess I missed it. I saw only people dancing and laughing. Maybe you should move to that town from Footloose.
Anon says
An orgy isn’t always about sex.
Diana L says
Well that has to be the most disgusting comment to roll into town since I looked at Joe Mullin’s comments.
Great example to set for our kids. A full blown homophobic and disgraceful comment on full display.
AndyP says
Woo – pretty grumpy there Gene….I’d love to search your internet browser history hahahahaha
Someone’sFull OfHate👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻 says
Can you clutch your pearls any harder? I guess you just gobbled up the freak show that was also shown where kids could see it — Trump, pants on backwards, with a full diaper, his mental decay on full display. I bet you’d crucify Jesus if he were alive today because he’d be the grand Marshall at a Pride parade living his words of tolerance, love, acceptance, and no judgement. Glass houses always shatter, especially when you use a boomerang.
You people crack me up when you start saying, “But the children.” You do realize most kids find p o r n h u b dot com on their parent’s laptops, usually with something Lez bookmarked so…right now, as it stands pearl clutcher, you’re the freak full of hate, and not a true child of Jesus. Toodles.
Skibum says
A colorful assortment of Americans not afraid to display their freedom of assembly and socialize with others who, unlike you, are not judgmental and bigoted regarding those who do not look or dress like you? And one more point… this group of individuals who have been discriminated against and voted against were NOT storming the U.S. Capitol or beating and injuring dozens of police officers as they broke in and damaged public property. You sound like the type who would defend those disgusting law breakers at the Capitol, while hurling insults toward peacefully gathered citizens enjoying themselves at an event that is not to your liking. I suggest you get a life and spend more time looking in the mirror, reflecting on any shortcomings you may have instead of wasting oxygen disparaging others.
She knows best says
Your comment makes me happy 😊
Thank you
Rufkutdiamnd says
That’s the problem with you boomers, you are of closed mind and cold heart.
Denali says
Careful with that paint brush. Not all boomers have closed minds and cold hearts. Some of us would surprise you!
Ru says
I apologize. There are some pretty cool and open minded ones.
Kat says
Thank you for a great article about an amazing festival. My husband and I attended, along with two of my friends, as allies of our LBGQT + community. One of the thoughts that I had early in the festival was “How wonderful a place would the world be if everybody felt as welcome and included as we all do right this minute? What if we all lived and loved the way we were encouraged to do so by Pastor Sim Jones”?
My heart was full at the sight of a child wearing a T-shirt proclaiming kind people as her kind of people, a woman wearing a shirt offering free mom hugs, and another boasting that equality is not rocket science. Seated next to us were an older couple with homemade signs proudly proclaiming themselves the mother of a gay son and the father of a transgender daughter.
It was extremely uplifting to see the community coming together to protect its most vulnerable members at a time when our LBGTQ+ youth are being marginalized. In Flagler county, as well as in the state of Florida as a whole, policies and laws have been enacted which are detrimental to all types of minority youth. Notable is the ban on transgender athletes, but amazing emcee Abby Cooke also brought to light the extremely harmful policy of “outing” kids to their parents. How detrimental could this possibly be? One of my companions actually had to take in a child who was kicked out by their parents as a minor (in one of our local high schools) for being transgendered. Although the entire mood of the event was joyful, there were some serious issues brought forward which definitely deserve further thought and action.
Kudos to Colleen Conklin for her outstanding work on our school board, and contributions to our community at large. We need more like her! Thank you to Courtney VandeBunte for putting herself out there and running for the school board. Shouldn’t the school board be made up of teachers and parents who care about ALL students? My appreciation also goes out to the many organizations that had booths highlighting safe spaces and physical/mental health services, all of which are desperately needed and seldom discussed.
I am so grateful that I have lived long enough to see something like this. I became a nurse in the late 1980s during the beginning of the AIDS crisis. The shaming, shunning and abandonment of adults and babies alike during that time will stay with me always. Now one can receive free HIV testing at a festival and it is no big deal, we’ve come a long way baby!
Pride parades and festivals are not events that happened overnight. They are the culmination of many peoples’ sacrifices and hard work. They grew from the seeds that were planted as AIDS walks and small grassroots organizations. They grew despite bigoted and violent opposition. They grew because people didn’t give up when faced with what seemed like insurmountable challenges.
We are a small community but we don’t have to be small minded. And to echo a sentiment that I heard over and over again last night, we need to exercise our voting power to put people in office that represent ALL of us. In ways big and small we need to keep chipping away at peoples’ consciousness so that eventually kindness will prevail. It gives me hope that the turn out last night was so much more than expected, I’d love for the rest of the world to see what Flagler County can be as opposed to what is historically has been.
Jimbo99 says
Just reading what few comments have been made so far. The beauty of the event was there were no protests that turned violent or any crimes committed, so why be angry in the comments section ? I wasn’t even aware the event was being held. It really didn’t affect my plans on a Saturday afternoon & evening. Good to hear FCSO didn’t have to scramble any resources to the event. I avoid larger gatherings simply because of the traffic, not who or what comprises the traffic, too many people in one area is just too many people.
Gina Weiss says
Very sad comment I saw and just have to say my piece. Here goes. Being born and raised in NY’S West Village I have had and still have many dear friends from our LGBTQ community who I grew up with, who I went to clubs and party’s with, who I went shopping with, who were my co-workers, and who I went to school with, and who accepted me into their lives and who helped me with some of my own struggles in life. I remember spending some of my most happy and fun days. Some of my dearest friends were victims of horrific hate crimes. These are human beings, beloved relatives and children of parents, some of them didn’t get a funeral. The End.
The Parks are for the people says
While I am a traditional white male republican, And this type of display in my town was initially disconcerting to me, I recognize the percentages of folks choosing alternate lifestyles and “coming out of the closet” etc and if all I got to do if I don’t want to be involved is keep my kid from flying a kite in the park one day a year and nobody got hurt or arrested? My blessings, All seemed to enjoy their day and the sun, Let people do their thing they are tax paying citizens too.
The dude says
It’s a step in the right direction.
Thank you.
James Manfre says
Exactly where was the sheriff’s office. This was an opportunity for Staly to assure the Pride community that their rights will be respected in this county. 800 people and not even a drive by of a sheriff’s deputy. He reflects the Republican disdain for Pride and their legitimate civil rights.
Grandma says
What does the republicans have to do with this. Because our sheriff is republican you assume all republicans feel this way. I’m sure many democrats have disdain for Pride and their legitimate civil rights.
Concerned Citizen says
A shameful attempt at mudslinging by a has been.
Where was your support while you were in office? I don’t remember you being a champion of the LGBTQ community.
Local says
You mean to tell me not 1 cop drove by all day? I saw several and I was working in the area….some people just make stuff up to cplain about.
starryid says
He was protecting the grateful Citizens of Flagler County. That’s exactly where he was during the Pride Festival! You’re doing a great job, Sheriff Staly!
Dennis says
I just threw up in my mouth. 🤮
Kathryn says
Do it again, I wasn’t looking! Enjoy being on the wrong side of history. It’s 2021, gay people exist, get over it.
Denali says
I must assume that my first response to you went a step too far as it was not published. So let me try a different approach.
I quote that great philosopher Linus Van Pelt by saying; “I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand.” (November 12, 1959) You sir, by way of your closed minded and hateful nature, have forced me to add one more name to the list of people I cannot stand.
(Full disclosure, the basis for Master Van Pelt’s statement was “Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoyevsky.)
Truett says
Throngs???
Even with the widest angled shot I see 200…no more than 300 people. Hardly a large, crowded, multitude.
Also, the rainbow was created as a symbol of God’s Covenant to never flood the earth again. In my opinion, it should not be used as a symbol for pride.
PRIDE (prīd) 1 conceit, self-esteem, egotism, vanity; haughtiness; feeling proud; the best of a group: 2 Zoology A group of lions, usually consisting of several related females and their offspring and a small number of unrelated adult males. 3 Mettle or spirit in horses.
Now, I understand that many who read this may not believe in God, disagree with my opinion, or even think to each their own. That is your right and free will. You can believe whatever you choose. However, ask yourself a question: Why does this group have to work so hard to convenience the majority that their choice is normal? Why are they so angry when people do not approve, condone and applaud their choice in this area of life? Why the demand to conform to their beliefs or you are labeled with horrible titles?
I do not like seafood, running, and watching sports on TV. I might possibly be the only person in this country who has never seen The Walking Dead or Games of Thrones. However, none of the masses of people who participate in these things berates me for not conforming to their standard. They may explain why they think I should watch a show, or even why running is healthy for me. They never place a demand on me to conform my belief to theirs. I do the same. I explain why I believe, or like, things I do…I never place a demand on people to conform to it. I think it is an honest, sincere question.
The Geode says
Though I couldn’t care less what the next person does as long if it doesn’t affect me, I take offense at the term “bigot” with anybody who doesn’t agree with the “narrative of the moment”. You have a right to your own introspection – you just have to be careful when you express it out loud…
Enough says
I was at PRIDE and thought it was great!! I was humbled by the amount of non biased people that showed up to add their support to this event. As for the ignorant critics, you should make an effort to understand a situation before you condemn it. However, that will probably not be the case; phonies and hypocrites like Mullins will always be around to “push” a non existent point; and the mindless will nod their heads and follow a shallow figure because they can’t face their fears of things they are unable to comprehend. Sad, but true.
Mark says
This is beautiful! If only we can work on making more people LGBTQ+ ! LETS GET TO WORK PEOPLE! Imagine how beautiful and accepting this world would be if we can get even more of us around this town spreading love and kindness! I hope people all over the world on social media view this event in Flagler County and possibly move here to a place that truly can be accepting to LBGTQ+ !
Shaffer says
*Before you read this, I really don’t care if you think it took too much time away from being a hater, or looking up conspiracy theories or collecting money for Marjorie Taylor Greene, and of course, time away from OANN and FOX, If it takes you long enough to complain about it, then just don’t go any further, because obviously you are lacking the mindset, IQ and humility to every ponder a different view and perhaps change for the better, so go back to watching The Ingraham Files, because, you know… she is so truthful and unbiased, like they say on the ticker, hahaha
The world will never be all for something or all against…its silly to think this way. What concerns me more is, every single event, narrative, action, etc., seems to always end up including a political party. Since it will never be all or non, I DO wish I saw more Republicans FOR an event like this and to be fair, a democrat that doesn’t agree. Because its hard to believe there isn’t a Republican walking this country that doesn’t have a gay child, sibling or even parent. Its shameful to think that its because more children/teens/or adults feel it to be harder to come out and be accepted in Republican households, than in Democrat households, because they are not living their true life. I am registered (I) or NPA and while I simply didn’t vote for either Trump or Clinton, once he was elected I felt he was the President for all and asked some naysayers to give him or ANYONE a chance to do what they said they would do, like “Repeal and REPLACE” (“With the best health insurance the world has ever seen”, as well as the promise to never golf, because he would be too busy working for the people, etc etc etc etc etc) SO, yeah, he failed and ended up putting us back fifty years. Soon after he moved his Wolff Tanning Bed into the White House, I predicted that either we would FINALLY break from the broken two party system, OR, he would ruin or divide the Republican Party. So far I am thinking of opening a shop as a fortune teller. But this will be our doom…. My grandparents told me when I turned 18, that when it came time to vote and you are in the booth and look at the names, if you don’t recognize one, or you don’t know what they stand for, or how they have voted if previous govt office was held, THEN DONT VOTE simply based on a color or animal. We have break from this choice of two choices and while I was hoping we would do so, we went backwards, because now its not even about a party or platform, its about a Celebrity Social Media fabrication that is created by lobbyist, PR People, Hollywood Agents, Sociology Experts and crooked lawyers. If someone’s platform is FOR/PRO 13 issues important to me and 9 against, then I will vote for that person, regardless of color or animal, however, when two out of two party platforms no longer care about policy and more about how much money it raises and hits on social media, then we need to just pull a USSR-Russia, Yugoslavia-Chech Republic, etc. And start over. Both parties now have the fringe crazy people, that have no idea what AA/AS, BA/BS, JD, PhD, stands for. The think its Bubbas initials down the road. They believe Jewish made lasers caused the fires in California (Yeah, that MJ Greene idiot is on video saying that several times and she has taken in MILLIONS) and do you know why these people are winning? Because its the same mindset as why Children from broken homes are losing. Just as the separated/divorced parents hate each other more than they love their children, these extreme fringe far left and far right uneducated idiots hate the other side more than they love our country. Its THAT simple and they have more time on their hands to dedicate to being louder, because they are too ignorant to have a real career, or too selfish, lazy and Un-American to be volunteering somewhere, and usually they speak louder in general because most do not have mufflers on their cars and have to yell to their wife or husband, I mean, cousin or sister. People that understand the Constitution and understand that there is no mechanism to place Trump back in office by August, are busy being TRUE Americans, giving back, being kind, networking with other Americans to find common ground and what they have in common, not letting a bumper sticker cause road rage. Both sides have their far lefts and rights. And, I don’t understand why people are so threatened by gay people, if you aren’t attracted to the same sex, then don’t #### one of them! And before SOMEONE goes there, I have a Doctorate in Sociology and a Masters in Child Growth and Dev, Micro/Macro A-B with a minor in Abnormal Psychology and statistic after statistic overwhelming shows that people that engage in pedophilia are STRAIGHT, because its not about preference, its about POWER. Just like what was once known as a transvestite, one that likes to dress in female clothing for the Psychological and Emotional fulfillment are also overwhelmingly STRAIGHT. Drag Queens, now they are overwhelming GAY, as it is a theatrical reasoning, they usually do not want to be women. And most men that DO have sex changes, or a Transsexual tends to trend a little more than 50 percent that they are also straight, for which once becoming a women, they would then be technically a lesbian, as they still have a preference for women, now as a woman. ONE MORE THING, I feel we are in fact losing our right to speech, but even though I fear this, or just because we have a right to do something, it doesn’t mean we should always exercise that right and as an example I will simply say to those who left such hateful comments… Children, YOUR child, or grandchild, based on trends lately, are much more likely to commit suicide after reading a comment or overhearing such thoughts from a family member. Just because your son or daughter is a jock or beauty queen with 2.5 children, doesn’t mean they are keeping a secret and living a lie, because who wants to be themselves when their own family says such hateful things about one day at a park. If it interferes with YOUR LIFE somehow and you feel you cant take another breath with “Those People” near you, THEN GO VOLUNTEER FOR THE DAY! And when you tell someone they are going to hell, simply by telling someone that afforded you a ticket to that very place, because I cant seem to find where LOVING and committed to someone of the same sex is one of the “Big Ten”, not on either tablet, front or back (I looked, lol) But hating and judging your neighbor is RIGHT THERE. Why you so called Bible and People of God think you are better then someone simply for who they love aren’t shaking in your boots just blows my mind. The simple act is Hypocrisy 101 and sinful. If someone does not rule their life with lust, has a committed, loving relationship with a person their whole life and lives a respectful life, void of theft, abuse, infidelity, etc… yet God sends that person to anywhere else but beside him?…then I’m not sure he is the God everyone speak of or that I would then WANT to spend eternity with. I just cant see a loving God turning so many away simply for the way they were born. Its just plain silly and spooky.
BTW, haven’t any of you ‘Heterosexual’ men out there got the memo yet? Men who are truly heterosexual, secure in that fact and truly has never had any ‘thoughts’ of engaging with other men (And I dont mean boys entering and during puberty, exploration is VERY common, healthy and part of becoming a man and knowing you ARE in fact straight), men that are secure, they have no problem spending a few hours at a Pride Festival, or perhaps having a close friend that is gay and frequent gay resorts, bars, restaurants, shops, whole towns, etc, It is people like Mullins that has been proven over and over, time and time again, who are those that have closeted thoughts. Mr. Mullins, based on the degrees on my home office and 54 years on this earth, TRULY needs to reach out for some help. His past actions and rhetoric clearly is a scream for help and he is deeply troubled. Since I in fact, DO have such degrees, I will refrain from even attempting to name any one mental health issue, since that is serious and needs to be done so in person by a licensed professional. I can only guess that he is either miserable, greatly afraid, or perhaps someone has done something to him and others like him, even as a child, that has made him feel this way and if that is the case, we must have pity on him and hope he gets help and again, when that tragedy happens, its about power, not what you have between your legs. There are Gay, Straight, Bi, Men, Women, etc Child Abusers.
Very sorry this was so long.
She who is sometimes wrong says
Thank you, that was awesome, and I enjoyed reading it. ❤
steve says
And the Truth shall be Told. There you have it. Thank You for an excellent Informing credible Post