Matthew Mason fears violence may erupt

Screenshot via Towleroad

A FAR-RIGHT group is planning to hold a ‘Straight Pride’ rally later this month in Modesto, California, but Matthew Mason, above – son of co-organiser of the event Mylinda Mason – is hoping that the City Council will stop the event from taking place.

Organisers have reportedly filed an application to use the city’s Mancini Bowl for a rally and may also be planning a parade around the August 24 event.

Mason says he plans address the Council and voice his concerns. He supports the right to free speech and peaceful assembly but believes the city should not allow this event because it has the potential for violence.

A local chapter of the Proud Boys said the will attend the event. The New York Times has reported that Proud Boy members attended the 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which one of the rally participants drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one of them.

The other co-organiser has a long history of hate, according to the Modesto Bee:

Don Grundmann, 67, founded the National Straight Pride Coalition and its California chapter about four months ago, the latest in a series of groups he has formed over the years, including Citizens Against Perversion …

According to its website, the coalition is protecting traditional gender roles, Christianity, heterosexuality, Western Civilization, and the contributions of whites to Western Civilization from the malevolence of the homosexual movement …

Grundmann said in a July 27 interview that he hopes the coalition grows nationwide and influences the 2020 election. “We’re going to change the cultural tide and make it, such things as gender fluidity and transgender, we’re going to associate them with what they are: sick and evil ideas, and also infanticide and abortion. We going to go the whole gamut. It’s OK to be a man. It’s OK to be a woman.”

When “Straight Pride” first came to America’s attention, this is how Stephen Colbert reacted: