Minneapolis parks, Pride tussle over anti-gay group

“Mr. Johnson is free to hurl invectives against the GLBT community and their families and distribute Bibles on the public sidewalk opposite Loring Park,” said Amy Slusser, an attorney with the Minneapolis law firm, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi and who is representing Pride. “That is his First Amendment right. He just can’t do so in the park while it is being leased for the Pride Festival.”

Amen and hallelujah. The Pride event has paid to occupy this park – Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have absolutely no right to harass participants in that space.

[...] The Minnesota Independent reports: Pride officials say they will seek a federal injunction Wednesday to prevent the Johnsons from handing out books and anti-gay literature within Loring Park during the festival. They gave the park board until Tuesday evening to reverse the decision to allow the Johnsons in the park. [...]

http://imgur.com/sV5Wb.jpg

That is all.

[...] this year, they have the city’s OK to do so. And the Pride organizers are NOT happy about [...]

BIBLES?!? Oh no! Anything but that!

So what if he shows up to gay bash? He is one of the main reasons we celebrate gay pride. Let him know that. Bash him back harder.

Hmm, though, this is an interesting moral dilemma for Pride. They argue they have the right, as a private group, to control the message they want to share, including the right to decide who and who cannot be a part, or within, the Pride itself.

And yet gay rights activists say the government should force the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay people in as members.

If it were up to me, I’d have said, “Sure, we’ll let them speak, but that doesn’t mean we have to listen.” Just have an alternate group of gay-affirming religious organizations surround them and drown out the Johnson’s message of hate.

However, though, I think that because the Park Board waited so long to inform Pride about the Johnsons, I think for this year they shouldn’t be allowed in Loring Park, but next year, when Pride has plenty of time to know about it and prepare for it, then let them in.

[...] – The city of Minneapolis has ruled that Anti-Gay protestors can no longer be banned from entering the city’s Pride Festival. [...]

[...] – The city of Minneapolis has ruled that Anti-Gay protestors can no longer be banned from entering the city’s Pride Festival. [...]

WASHINGTON JUNE 23 | While it is unfortuante that persons like the Johnsons seem to live to disrupt Pride as well as in the case of the much derided Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, [Phelps Clan]

The fact remains that free speech is protected. Which means that they can spout whatever nonsense they desire. What the listeners choose to absorb or not, even listen to the message or not, is entirely up to them as a matter of personal choice.

There is a greater danger in not allowing these people to express themselves openly. In fact, it is by far a greater good to let them espouse their intolerance in public view, so as to let all see just how narrow-minded and biased their message is. If you stifle them, and force them to utilize other means of getting their message across, there lies the road to extremism and theocratic actions that translate into hate crimes.

The bottom line is that the greater LGBT community continues to advance and approach full equality & parity despite the ‘Johnsons’ of the world. [Oh, an I've found that bibles make excellent door stops and coasters...]
Seriously, LGBT people need to let these folk spout off and foam at the mouth so as to let all around see just how ignorant, no strike that, just how stupid they truly are.

The Pride Festival evidently hasn’t accomplished much after all these years if they can’t stand a couple of nutjob bible-thumpers in the midst of 300,000 of their own. No one would have even noticed these Fred Phelps wannabes had not the Pride Festival drawn attention to their sorry asses.

[...] Minnesota Independent: “The park board has given the OK to Brain and Lois Johnson to distribute the Bibles, saying it is merely standing up for free speech. … The Johnsons had put pressure on the park board when they enlisted the help of the Alliance Defense Fund, a James Dobson–affiliated religious right legal organization based in Arizona. The group has defended numerous cases of anti-gay protesters crossing legal lines to denounce LGBT people, including a similar case in New York. In a complaint to the Minneapolis Park Board dated April 5, ADF called Twin Cities Pride a ‘festival devoted to the toleration of homosexual conduct.’” [...]

[...] Klan to openly convey their racist and anti-immigration views at the Cinco de Mayo festival," says Minnesota Pride Festival attorney Eileen Scallen, denouncing the Minneapolis Park and Recreation [...]

Is his name really Brain?

That’s awesome.

“But the park board did concede that the Johnsons would not be allowed to hand out Bibles or literature at the festival and the board would not try to force Pride to give Johnson a booth.”

Well, if he is only going to be there to preach, I say let him in. In fact, I think Pride should charge him a vendor fee and double the normal rate. Then lets see if he sticks around.

I’ve been to Pride and I’ve seen the protesters. They can be easily ignored if all they do is shout their heads off about the invisible man in the sky.

The issue is not whether the Johnsons have the right to free speech. Of course they do. They can say whatever they like.

The issue is whether they have a right to participate in a paid-for, permitted, privately-sponsored event that is taking place in a public space. It sounds like the Boston parade case says ‘no.’

What if the park were leased and permitted to a wedding? Would these same folks have a ‘right’ to protest it?

[...] gonna sue you” bandwagon, and the park’s department did an about-face.  As of now, the Johnson’s are going to be there. Twin Cities Pride and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board are locked in a disagreement over [...]

It is typical of religious nuts to consider they have a right to trash everyone around them.

I think Gay Pride ought to charge the group for a booth inside of the park. Then we ask for volunteers for a security detail and we surround the bible thumping hating whatever they are folks so that they can’t interact with the rest of us.

I think there is a big point being missed. Every year there are many groups, individuals and businesses that rent park facilities and are allowed to exclude the general public from being part of their event. So why is it okay for them to exclude people that they don’t want at their event in a public park, but it’s not okay for Tiwn Cities pride to do the same thing? Seems to me like a double standard.

Susser and Scallen are well intentioned but mistaken.

What possible harm could there be in allowing them entrance to the event? Do we have such a surfeit of free speech in our society such that we’re warranted in seeking opportunistic restrictions on it?

Shouldn’t those left of center be the first ones to defend a culture of dissent (even when we know the dissent consists of rank idiocy)?

If anything I’d imagine that having the opposition present will have a rallying effect on attendees. Chances are they’ll be a source of amusement. We know already that a sizable chunk of the population either refuses or is incapable of subjecting their religious dogmas to rational criticism; they’re flatly incurious about historical scholarship and they refuse to consider how scientific findings might call allegedly holy scriptures into question.

Go with this. Let this be an opportunity to engage and raise doubts. Or if the Johnson’s skulls are too thick, which is likely, be prepared with some civil but witty comments and slighting wisecracks.

The religious bigots are losing this and many other battles, as is proper, good, just and beautiful. Let’s not give them any ammo.

Wanna let Brian & Doris Johnson know how you feel about them raining on our parade? Call or write them!

Brian & Doris Johnson
13250 W State Rd #77
Hayward, WI 54843
(715) 634-6006

What do they expect to accomplish?

At least MN’s GOP isn’t quite as insane at that of Texas:

“Texas GOP platform: criminalize gay marriage and ban sodomy, outlaw strip clubs and pornography”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/06/22/2010-06-22_texas_gop_platform_criminalize_gay_marriage_and_ban_sodomy_outlaw_strip_clubs_an.html

Let him hand out his bibles…no biggie! Gay people are christians too and we can have a talk about what the scriptures say about being gay..lol! as for his literature…hand that out too. But i will see u at your next church picnic or carnival so i can hand out my equal rights stickers and literature!! Fair is fair folks!

Apparently this Johnson character doesn’t understand the gay community very well – For one thing, gay men don’t have much room in their back pocket for anything, much less a Bible.

I totally agree with Pride Festival and absolutely agree that Pride has leased Loring Park from the City of Mpls and has paid a fee that gives Pride the right to control vendors at Loring Park during the hours of their lease.

The Johnson’s are free to fill out vendor contract and pay a fee to Pride, and that vendor contract would be accepted as long as they agree to meet the terms of the vendor contract. The terms have longstanding history and are designed to insure a safe place for all GLBTA folks to enjoy two days of celebration. If the Johnson’s can’t abide by the vendor terms they don’t belong in Loring Park.

When a group has to put it’s “pride” on signs and march around telling everyone about it, you have to wonder.

Pride is the opposite of shame, a tactic used by anti-gay elements to marginalize those who are gay or lesbian. Expressing pride is a way of telling everyone that there is nothing wrong with us, that we are just fine the way we are.

Only in Minneapolis can you give condoms to kids and be allowed to give bibles to adults. Free speech is great as long as the other person does not have the right to free speech.