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Not even the coronavirus pandemic could stop these right-wingers staging a pathetic Straight Pride protest

Not even coronavirus could stop these right-wingers staging Straight Pride

Members of España 2000, a far-right political party, jammed into Plaza del Ayuntamiento to hold a ‘Straight Pride Day’ during LGBT+ Pride Month. (Twitter)

A “Straight Pride” event was held in València, Spain, because, truly, straight people are being so marginalised right now at this specific moment.

Members of España 2000, a far-right political party, jammed into Plaza del Ayuntamiento at around midday on Sunday, 28 June, according to local media reports. The formation, in a statement to the media, clarified that they are not “undermining” LGBT+ rights, but rather hoping to “show the pride of people for feeling heterosexual”.

With the coronavirus pandemic making large gatherings in many places impossible, LGBT+ Pride organisers and community leaders across the globe have faced two options: Go online, or scale back.

Both have been plagued with problems. Some scaled-back parades have been pockmarked by police brutality in scenes echoing the Stonewall riots. Others saw Pride-goers balance the perilous safety measures with the ever-mounting need to show solidarity with some of most vulnerable in society, Black trans women.

The trans community has increasingly been pelted with harsh rollbacks to already fragile rights and a swelling global epidemic of violence.

Straight Pride was ‘not intended to judge or undermine’ LGBT+ rights, says right-wing party.

But it appeared that a ruthless contagion that weeks earlier froze much of Spain and, you know, that straight people already have rights, did little to put off España 2000, which has never obtained national or regional parliamentary representation, from holding a “Straight Pride Day”.

Several “Straight Pride” events, often organised by groups with ties to white nationalist and far-right groups, were held last year. Many typified by flanked claims that straight folk are the “oppressed majority”, a severe lack of attendees that are greatly drowned out by pro-LGBT+ counter-protesters and an overwhelming amount of straight-legged denim.

“Straight Pride Day” in the eastern region drew around two dozen attendees, according to various photographs posted to social media. Pride-goers, some wearing masks, appeared to show their Pride, for the most part, with baggy shorts and dull polo shirts.

Some mixed-sex couples held hands in an open challenge to the incredible oppression they suffer as heterosexual citizens, such as having basic human rights that many queer Spaniards do not have.  Others would tell people holding LGBT+ Pride flags to leave the square, one witness alleged.

One attendee appeared to carry a flag with the logo used by the French anti-marriage equality lobby group La Manif pour tous. Originally founded in a frenzied attempt to stonewall a bill on same-sex marriage, the group has since broadened its claim to defending “traditional families”, according to monitoring groups.

Members stormed the València City Council building and reached a balcony overlooking the square, unrolling a banner that translates to “Straight Pride Day” before being ordered to pack up minutes later by security. The plaza itself is dotted by public benches splashed with the colours of the LGBT+ Pride flag.

According to the group’s promotional flyer shared online, the group state that children “deserve a father and mother” and called for supporting the “rights of children”.

“Far from what some may think, it is not intended to judge or undermine the rights of anyone,” Espańa 2000 said in a statement.

“Obviously neither do they want to discriminate against any group based on their sexual condition, they just want to show the pride of the majority of people for feeling heterosexual that is to say, we feel congratulated because our sexual inclination obeys the most epistemological canons of human nature.”

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