Last Saturday, November 16, a “straight pride parade” was organised in the city of Dallas, although the event was not the success organisers would have hoped for with only four attendees, not including the actual local organiser of the “parade”. 

The whopping four attendees included two men who travelled from Boston, a member of the hate group Dallas Proud Boys showed up to the event, as well as Princess Vanna, a woman who claims that she “converted from lesbianism after finding God,” according to local activist Soraya Colli who live-streamed the disastrous event. By all accounts, it was a colossal failure, with much more protestors than actual attendees. 

The Dallas Voice reported that the organisers of the “straight pride parade” actually abandoned this plan as they naively did not realise that they would need a permit to hold such an event in the city which would cost around  $12,000. The organisers made a complaint about what they felt was discrimination, however, they were promptly shut down by Jayla Wilkerson, city attorney and trans activist, who explained that a trans rights march had just recently been cancelled as they could not afford the permit fee either. 

Upon this revelation that they were not being discriminated against by the city, one man made the claim that he was thrown out of his family home for being straight, while another hurled anti-trans rhetoric at protestors. 

Matt Sahady, one of Super Happy Fun America’s lead organizers, the group heavily involved in events like this one, also runs the Boston chapter of a small far-right group called Resist Marxism was in attendance. The group is well known for its anti-Semitic and white supremacist views, with other organisers of the event also sharing such sentiments. 

No violence was reported at the event, however, one of the men and two protestors in attendance engaged in a loud verbal altercation and the police had to intervene.

Much like the similar event held in California which only drew around 20 attendees, protesters to the event out-numbered its attendants. In a video clip posted to Facebook, LGBT+ activists and attendees have a back and forth debating their rights to hold such an event as well as avoid fees they must pay in order to do so.