A man planning to host a ‘Straight Pride’ event in Modesto, California, left residents in stitches when he had a slip of the tongue during a City Council meeting.
Don Grundmann appeared at the meeting to defend his decision to host a ‘Straight Pride’ rally on August 24, and he started off by defending his intentions.
‘We haven’t done anything wrong,’ he told the room, ‘we’re a totally peacefully, racist group.’
Although he quickly tried to take back the ‘racist’ part of his comment, he was quickly drowned out by counter-protesters laughing and cheering so hard he couldn’t be heard.
Grundmann, from the Bay Area, is teaming up with Mylinda Mason from Modesto to host the event. He’s also the founder of the National Straight Pride Coalition, which has been in existence for around four months.
On the coalition’s website, it says it aims to promote and defend ‘Western Civilisation’, ‘Caucasians’, heterosexuality, a ‘God ordained natural nuclear family’. It also holds the virtues of nationalism in high regard.
Matthew Mason, the adopted son of Mylinda Mason was also at the meeting, where he heavily denounced his mother and Grundmann.
As reported by SF Gate, he said:
I have personally heard her use hateful, harmful rhetoric when describing the LGBTQ+ community and non-Christian religious communities.
Don Grundmann is a radical right-wing fascist from the Bay Area who is attempting to use Modesto as a launching ground for his political and cultural campaign of hate.
Grundmann and Mason have applied to reserve Mancini Bowl, which is an amphitheatre run by the city, for their rally, but the city is still debating over whether to approve the application or not.
A city spokesperson told the Sacramento Bee a decision would be made by the end of the week.
City manager Joe Lopez said if the city were to approve the event, it would not be an endorsement of its message, rather ‘recognition of the free speech rights enshrined in the First Amendment.’
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.