August 29, 2023 11:15 AM UTC

Haters Hot And Heavy At DougCo PrideFest

• 10 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark with an interesting take on the DougCo PrideFest protesters, noting that they’re meddling in other people’s parenting just like they accuse the government of doing:

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Denver7’s Micah Smith reports on an ugly but predictable episode Saturday afternoon at the scene of conservative exurban Douglas County’s PrideFest celebration–an event that went forward with an extra heaping of political controversy after local elected officials very publicly questioned the endeavor:

Douglas County PrideFest attendees and volunteers are sharing details surrounding Saturday’s Pride celebrations that were interrupted by more than 60 protesters at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

“I received an email from someone outlining [a group’s] intentions on coming into our show,” Art Kerkezian, co-chair of Douglas County PrideFest said. “The drag show and the drag queens have always been the target.”

The group blocked a drag show performance and wore shirts that read “STAND TO PROTECT CHILDREN.”

Colorado Community Media via the DougCo News-Press:

Though the promises of a family-friendly drag show at PrideFest came true, about two dozen protesters stood outside the event, with some shouting messages on a bullhorn such as: “Why would you bring your children here to be groomed and assaulted by a bunch of queers?”

After two people walked up in opposition to one of the protest crowds — which gathered on behalf of Patriot Front, according to those with PrideFest — law enforcement escorted the two men away from the crowd, apparently without incident. (Patriot Front is a White supremacist group, according to the Anti-Defamation League. A person with that crowd told a Colorado Community Media reporter not to approach them.)

Saturday’s PrideFest event in Castle Rock was well-attended despite the gauntlet of far-right protesters attendees had to pass through, followed by the prolonged disruption of the event’s “G-rated” drag show by dozens of protesters wearing “STAND TO PROTECT CHILDREN” T-shirts. Denver7:

Eli Bazan, the founder of the Parasol Patrol, an organization that uses colorful umbrellas to shield kids from protesters, said volunteering at this year’s event was intense.

“This was the most hate that we’ve encountered in Colorado since 2019,” Bazan said. [Pols emphasis] “We did a lot of planning in the lead-up. We had lots of security meetings with volunteers and the head of security. We had agreed on several areas that need to be followed for security … And it seems that on the day of, none of those plans came to fruition.”

Colorado Community Media reports that at least some of the heightened tensions at this year’s event can be attributed to local Republican elected officials:

A call for volunteer security for PrideFest ahead of the event had elicited criticism from Douglas County Commissioner George Teal, one of the county’s elected leaders, earlier in the week. He described the call as seeking “some variety of vigilante security.”

Teal, in an Aug. 22 meeting of county officials, also referred to “the advocates of PrideFest” as “advocating vigilante violence, it sounds like.”

The “vigilante security” Teal was referring to is the Parasol Patrol, an organization that has provided ad-hoc security for LGBTQ+ events in the Denver area for several years. No one has ever accused Parasol Patrol of any kind of violence or vigilantism, unlike the Proud Boys and other militia types who showed up intending to disrupt the event. Even Commissioner George Teal’s Republican colleague Lora Thomas (though they don’t get along) acknowledged that the only issue Saturday was the right-wing agitators:

The only distraction at the Drag Show in @douglascountyco was this group of guys who displayed T-shirts that said “Stand to protect children” and stopped the show. They refused requests to move which caused the show to be 45 minutes late.

Otherwise the show was entertaining… pic.twitter.com/8wvsBUQmAP

— Lora Thomas (@LoraThomasCO) August 27, 2023

The vigorous attempt at disruption of this weekend’s DougCo PrideFest took place on a bad weekend nationally for hate crimes, with another apparently race-based mass shooting in Florida. Political tension across the nation is very high right now with Donald Trump’s slow grind toward accountability inflaming his diehard supporters even as a majority of Americans strongly support it. The renewed intensity of this protest is consistent with the steady rise in bias-motivated crimes in recent years. At the same time, beleaguered Colorado Republicans under their repellently radical new leadership are fuming in impotent rage over the state’s seemingly unshakeable Democratic majority politics.

It took this village of factors to produce the steaming, toxic stew of hateful reaction that took place Saturday in Castle Rock. While we remain optimistic about the long moral arc of history, there’s unfortunately a possibility of much more ugliness–and much worse–in the short run as we relitigate the “culture wars” Republicans have been losing for generations one more time.

Until then, support your local Parasol Patrol.