Straight Pride 2020 is set to make an ugly return for the second year in a row in Modesto, California. Last year’s parade – which only attracted a few dozen people but hundreds of counter protestors according to reports – was widely ridiculed on social media.

The organisers, the National Straight Pride Coalition (NSPC), announced that the parade will take place in the car park of Modesto’s Planned Parenthood. According to their website, that venue was no accident. They have previously attacked Planned Parenthood as being “anti-Christian and pro-Satanism religious” and a “major driving force behind the attack of the LGBT war machine upon our nation”.

In fact, Planned Parenthood is an essential nonprofit organisation that provides affordable health care to millions.

The founder of NSPC, Don Grundmann, while describing his organisation last year in a public hearing in Modesto’s city council, called them “a totally peaceful racist group”. Yet despite the negative reactions, they were still granted a permit to gather. Their website also says that two of their founding principles are “Christianity” and “Caucasians”. Grundmann has also in the past compared homosexuality to “child molestation”.

A peaceful counter protest has already been planned by Modesto’s LGBT+ non-profit MoPride Inc. MoPride are “a catalyst for building and celebrating the strength, dignity, self-determination and equality for the LGBT community in Modesto and surrounding areas”.

The organisation’s Pride director, Zola Hayes, told PinkNews that they need to stand up and fight back against the hate in their own community, as it cannot be ignored.

“We can’t just not give them a microphone,” she said. “We have to stand up and push this hate out of our community.”

“They [NSPC] are absolutely representative of an emboldening of far-right groups that use hateful rhetoric to galvanise their base,” she added.

Straight Pride 2020 is set to take place despite the on-going global COVID-19 pandemic.