261

BOISE, Idaho — A minor confrontation broke out at the controversial "Hetero Awesome Fest" on Saturday when a protester took the stage and began singing a pro-LGBTQ+ song before being removed.

According to several livestreams of the event, including those from Old Street Saloon, the incident occurred during the two-day festival held on June 20-21 in Cecil D. Andrus Park, directly across from the Idaho State Capitol. Mark Fitzpatrick, owner of the Old State Saloon and organizer of the event, rushed the stage and took the microphone from the man after about a minute of singing.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 103 points 5 days ago

Hetero awesome fest

looks inside

Closeted gay men

[-] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 50 points 5 days ago

in this interview the guy behind the event (Mark Fitzpatrick) says this:

screencap with subtitle "In other words, we're b we're born a certain way with certain tendencies."

screencap with subtitle "and it's, it's um it is sinful, you know, to act out on that."

he's also a flat earther:

screencap of Mark Fitzpatrick wearing a t-shirt that says "fake space by NASA"

[-] Tigeroovy@lemmy.ca 13 points 4 days ago

Like my dude, just suck a dick and live a happy life.

[-] half@lemy.lol 33 points 5 days ago

I grew up in Idaho. Can confirm, that's basically the whole population.

[-] Cataphract@lemmy.ml 36 points 5 days ago

That whole article is infuriating... WHAT WAS THE SONG!!

but seriously, this article paints such a sad sad picture for them

The festival, which drew roughly 30 to 50 people at any given time on both Friday and Saturday (at a park...in the state capitol.... it was just people wandering around wondering wtf was going on lol)

"He sang a song with lyrics that go against our values," Fitzpatrick said... "This is yet another example of lies and deceptions from the Pride community. That’s what they are: liars and deceivers. They do it to victimize children. It’s pathetic and evil."

like, ffs. That was such an insane comment to make after someone sings a song you don't like, but then you find out the rest of his "events"

various events, including "Beers for Breeders" gatherings, Conspiracy Theory Trivia Night, where patrons can win an AR-15 rifle, Christian singles events, Bible study sessions, and gatherings for flat-earthers.

[-] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 61 points 5 days ago

Heteros cant be pro lgbtq+ now?

Should rename it to bigot festival. Cant call it hetero with all the closest gays it attracts.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works 54 points 5 days ago

This has big "why can't I also have a cake and gifts" energy.

[-] tektite@slrpnk.net 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I went to a kid's birthday party the other day. There was a little girl (maybe 4y/o?) there who had been to another party earlier in the day but left before that party had cake.

The second that cake was mentioned she starts wandering around going, "Can I have cake?" to anyone who would listen.

"Can I have cake? Can I have cake?" I was told someone had cake and I'll be damned if I don't get some immediately.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 41 points 5 days ago
[-] AltheaHunter 17 points 5 days ago
[-] Alloi@lemmy.world 39 points 5 days ago

so its an event for closeted gay men, to be proud of their facade, and network/hook up with other closeted gay men. who, like them, likely have just as much to lose if they got caught. so they know to keep it on the DL.

i wonder how much cum was swapped at this event from one dude to another. i know it aint zero. im gonna guess at least one full gatorade bottle.

[-] ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 21 points 5 days ago

Are you talking about Hetero Fest or the Republican National Convention?

[-] Bosht@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

Bro that would be GALLONS of semen.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Laser@feddit.org 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Wrong, it was totally straight and not gay at all, because everyone said "no homo" before and after doing what you described. Just dudes having a good time

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 36 points 5 days ago
[-] sundray@lemmus.org 27 points 5 days ago
[-] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago

I GOT SOMETHING TO PUT IN YOU!

AT THE GAY BAR, GAY BAR, GAY BAR!

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I can recommend the whole album that track comes from, too. It rocks just as hard as this. Maybe this is more to their hetero tastes.

[-] pachrist@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

He also said he received death threats for his views about what he called the "overt sexuality" he sees in Pride events and people who identify as LGBTQ+.

The Old State Saloon has hosted various events, including "Beers for Breeders" gatherings.

My how the turn tables.

[-] QuentinCallaghan@sopuli.xyz 25 points 5 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This reminds me of a straight pride event titled "Hetero Pride" that was organized in Finland way back in 2013. One of the organizers was a deputy regional councillor and Finns Party member. He claimed how society and the media over-emphasized homosexuality, calling it "homozation". He also claimed how it was hard to defend the traditional family model without being labelled homophobic and racist.

The event was held near the Parliament House in Helsinki. There were whole a lot more counter-protesters and some came to the event mainly because it was more like "popcorn pride". One of the speakers at the event literally said in his speech how "we don't have anything against homosexuals, but..." and another said something about how "the Bible states that marriage is only between a man and a woman". One speaker was later asked about "what privileges do gays have these days", and he just replied "I have to be honest, I can't say anything about that".

"The tiger can't change its stripes." The organizer mentioned later posed in a picture with five other men who made a Nazi salute – one of them was Seppo Lehto, an infamous Neo-Nazi. He also made a Nazi salute himself in another picture, this time wearing a Hitler mask. When called out, he said "I'm not in that picture. I wasn't there. I don't know where these kinds of clips came from." He later admitted being in the picture, claiming how he hadn't made a Nazi salute: "It's just a normal salute with the left hand. The official Nazi salute is with the right hand at a 45 degree angle."

The explanation wasn't enough for the Finns Party, and as a consequence he was fired from the party's regional council because of homophobia. Later he also resigned from the party.

[-] Hermit_Lailoken@lemmy.world 26 points 5 days ago
[-] Chivera@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

There's dozens of us!

[-] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 16 points 5 days ago

Why are they trying so hard?

[-] Manalith@midwest.social 11 points 5 days ago

Because they're HAF as fun so they gotta compensate.

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago

Can someone check if the active number of hinge users went up during this event?

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 14 points 5 days ago

Why Hinge? Are you thinking of Grindr?

Also, dozens of people isn't enough to make a significant blip.

[-] FerretyFever0@fedia.io 4 points 4 days ago

It might be in Idaho. That's like 1/5 of Boise.

[-] CatGPT@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I walked through that not realizing what it was. I saw a bunch of kids bouncy houses and there was some terrible country music on a stage. Friends and i were like what is this pitiful conservative day in the park bs and kept walking. We didn’t notice any anti pride stuff but just the vibe was pitiful maga people with vendor tents but i didn’t even see a maga flag either. We were just passing through boise for the first time and got beers nearby. Then a friend saw it on front page of Reddit after we left Boise and we were like holy shit that’s what it was

[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 21 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Why the hell does the link just redirect me to their YouTube channel?

Edit: Seems to do that only with EU countries, other countries' IPs work. Probably don't want to deal with privacy protection.

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago

Unfortunately, a lot of local American news sources have opted out of serving pages to the EU for privacy reasons. Kind of disturbing what that means for Americans.

[-] Lyra_Lycan 15 points 5 days ago

We're all victims of American capitalism

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] jaemo@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago

This is the hardest not the onion thing I have ever seen.

The title of the festival. 🤣🤣🤣 I'm fucking dying here. Holy shit.

I spent a summer once in Idaho in my early youth. Hard to describe anything there in terms of "awesome" unless it's beer gut.

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 4 days ago

I'm a cis white male, but I'll suck some dick to protest this bullshit.

[-] lemsip@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago
[-] celeste@kbin.earth 10 points 5 days ago

I wonder what song it was

[-] Bonus@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Closeted Bro Convention

[-] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 11 points 5 days ago

This sounds like, in the best case, it’d be like one of those Christian alternative-rock festivals, organised to demonstrate that you don’t need the Devil’s music to have fun, where you have bands playing watered-down, Jesused-up versions of punk/emo/metal and some dad in Vans and a studded belt taking the mike between bands to tell everyone that the raddest thing is to obey your parents and abstain from drugs and premarital sex.

A more likely scenario, though, would involve this being to some extent an anti-wokeness hate rally, with conspiracy theories about how the foundations of Western Civilisation are under threat from the gays and communists and, of course, (((those people))).

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Davel23@fedia.io 11 points 5 days ago

Well now I want to know what the song was.

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Pink Pony Club.

Just guessing.

[-] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 days ago

I kissed a girl

Just guessing

[-] RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 days ago
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] YourMomsTrashman@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
261 points (100.0% liked)

Not The Onion

16937 readers
1547 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

  1. Links to news stories from...
  2. ...credible sources, with...
  3. ...their original headlines, that...
  4. ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS