After El Paso shooting, Modesto worries about Straight Pride rally coming to town
Debbie Soro was already upset about a Straight Pride demonstration coming to Modesto this month that the organizers say will celebrate Caucasians, Christianity, heterosexuality and nationalism.
Now she’s really worried about what the event planned for Aug. 24 could ignite after three mass shootings in the past two weeks — including one in El Paso, Texas, where the shooter complained about a “Hispanic invasion” in a manifesto rife with white nationalism talking points. Modesto is a majority minority city where 39% of the residents are Latino. The demonstration’s organizer even publicly invited the Proud Boys, a far-right group, to attend.
“I am really worried that if they are granted a permit (by the city) that it is going to be violent,” said Soro, interim president of MoPride, an LGBTQ advocacy group for Stanislaus County. Modesto city staffers are expected to decide soon whether to issue a permit for the Aug. 24 demonstration at Modesto’s Graceada Park.
Soro and others in this politically divided part of the Central Valley are wrestling with how to respond to the event. Straight Pride opponents want to take a stand against racist, anti-LGBTQ speech in their hometown. But in doing so, do they risk calling more attention than deserved to a 4-month-old fringe group that has only a few dozen members?
Read more: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/After-El-Paso-shooting-Modesto-worries-about-14291643.php
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