An Idaho bar is drawing criticism after announcing it will be hosting a "Hetero Awesome Festival" (is that really the BEST name you could come up with? Maybe workshop it a bit more...) in response to LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
The grown adults who run Old State Saloon in the Boise suburb of Eagle are convinced that "traditional family values" are under assault because of Pride, so they will be holding their event on June 20 and 21 outside Idaho's state Capitol, to coincide with Pride celebrations.
Old State Saloon announced their celebration with an Instagram video that is frankly hilarious in its delusion.
It's exactly what you'd expect—a bunch of far-right grievance politics over things that are not happening but which Fox News and other propagandists have been insisting are real for decades.
As owner Mark Fitzpatrick put it in an email to NBC News:
"The Hetero Awesome Fest and Heterosexual Awesomeness Month aim to celebrate the traditional family unit and address concerns about cultural trends influenced by liberal progressivism."
"Our event is not about targeting any group but about raising awareness of practices we find troubling, such as the encouragement of 'gender transitions' among children or their exposure to inappropriate content."
That's the publicist-approved version. The video itself was a lot more specific:
"The Battle Lines of Heterosexual Awesomeness ... are the unyielding front where we plant our flag for family, truth, and liberty—no retreat, no surrender."
Retreat from what or surrender to whom, the video does not specify, likely because the threat is completely invented in their own gay-obsessed brains.
Anyway, it goes on to say that Fitzpatrick and his saloon are "slugging it out against the gutless enemies of traditional values" which includes "the LGBTQ+ agenda's anti-kin chaos," which sounds like something Yosemite Sam would say while shooting off his pistols if he were a weird conservatives with an inexplicable fixation on gay sex.
As you might guess, Fitzpatrick's announcement hasn't been very popular, including with the sponsors he's tried to line up, which he told NBC have all ignored his requests for donations.
It didn't go over well on social media, either, unless mockery was the goal. Cuz there was plenty of that!
Just for the record, Fitzgerald told NBC that his event is "a love thing" and there will be "no hate at all" despite claiming on social media that LGBTQ+ people are "criminals" who cut off children's genitals.
Lots of absolutely normal stuff going on at the Old State Saloon so the fest should be a good time!
@chefbenqc/Threads
@the_tre_haus; beckysolwold/Threads
Ron Jarvis/Facebook
@kasialove/Bluesky
Barbara Boetsch/Facebook
@maupt68/Threads
@leftofliberal2025/Threads
@pattistraus/Threads
@sugarpillseattle/Threads
@BlueJock/X
@SentientHaze133/X
@DivinyPete/X
@SeanCasten/X
@IAmJoeTrudeau/X
@sensiblemiddle/X