Friends,
The Boise Pride Festival last weekend was anything but a family-friendly event—no matter that organizers cancelled a kids’ drag show segment which originally had been part of the festival’s programming.
Unsurprisingly, local journalists whitewashed the event, portraying it as “family-friendly” and “age-appropriate.”
Gemma Gaudette, host of the Boise State Public Radio program Idaho Matters, described “the heart of drag” as “art, comedy, and self-expression.” She attributed community opposition to the kids’ drag show portion of the event as a “misunderstanding” rooted in unsubstantiated “moral panic.”
Or take Heath Druzin, a Boise-based journalist who reports for many legacy media outlets. Druzin dismissed widespread concern that children had been sexualized at the event, calling it an “ugly, homophobic conspiracy theory” promoted by “white supremacists.”
“By the way, I was at the [Boise Pride Festival], and it was people dancing on roller skates, people in costumes, it was upbeat music—anything but a debaucherous event,” Druzin said.
So what really happened at the festival? Children licked popsicles shaped to look like male genitalia. Kids danced on stage next to biological males dressed in women’s lingerie. Satanists waved a crucifix-shaped dildo and shouted satanic curses while desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary. One vendor even installed a stripper pole for festival attendees to use.
Is all of that “family-friendly” and “age-appropriate” for public parks? C’mon. Even liberal journalists should know better than to make such ludicrous claims.
I’ve attached below a letter that I received from a local pastor who attended the event. Not only is his account of what he saw is heartbreaking, but it also exposes the spiritual darkness and sexual perversion that characterized the whole affair.
We must keep shining the light of Christ. After all, such deviant and sacrilegious activities have no place in a public park, especially around children. Public virtue and children’s innocence must be protected.
Standing with you,
Blaine Conzatti
President, Idaho Family Policy Center
Blaine,
I spent a total of 11 hours at the Boise “Pride” Festival between Saturday and Sunday this past weekend.
My purpose in going was simple: I wanted to proclaim the good news—that the God-man Jesus Christ had come to reconcile sinners to the true and living God. I was not alone in this glorious calling; many brothers and sisters from local churches joined together to proclaim this same message. This much was encouraging.
I was also heartbroken by the flaunting of wickedness and rebellion which characterized the entire event:
Representatives and members of the Satanic Temple of Idaho were on hand and enjoying the “festival” and all it stood for. I spoke briefly with one man who was quite proud of his role in founding the Idaho “temple.”
Many, many attendees and performers were not skirting the lines of modesty in their dress. Some women were wearing sheer tops with exposed breasts covered only by nipple pasties—even as children stood mere feet away. What I saw was men and women wearing attire that could only be appropriate in a bedroom and parading it for the wider public to see.
Messaging from the stage was a whirlwind of sexual content. “Are there any dirty girls out there? Who else is dirty like me?” cried one act from the stage that was answered by roars and screams from the crowd. Foul language, screaming, and cursing flowed from those speaking from the stage—at a public city park in view of the state capitol building.
One of the event exhibitors actually provisioned a strippers pole for festival attendees to “dance,” express their “sensual flow,” or to “twerk.”
But by far the worst and most tragic element of this past weekend was the presence of so many children. Infants, toddlers, grade-schoolers on up. I did what my conscience compelled me to do: I repeatedly pleaded with those parents not to take their children into such a place.
Why would parents take their own children into a place so highly sexualized? This “festival” was no safe place for any soul, much less that of a child.
I am always grateful when God grants me an opportunity to speak with love and tenderness to lost and dying people about their souls which will never die. It is an immense privilege and joy. I get to do battle on behalf of the King—but it is a battle.
May our hearts break for those who are hurting and longing for peace within their soul. But let us also cry out on behalf of the children who are being treated as pawns by a culture and industry who is intent on sexualizing and abusing the innocent. If you have any more ideas about how I can advocate for the voiceless, please let me know.
With fear and trembling,
Paul Lewer
The Well Church (Boise)
One Response
Can I ask why there has been no opposition to the Drag Santa/Pride Event at the Botanical Gardens from this organization?
Pride in the Garden December 18, 2022.
https://www.idahobotanicalgarden.org/wintergardenaglow
The IBG originally stated they would have a drag Santa. I do not know if this is still the case. I heard that when someone called to voice concern, the IBG comment was that there are many other nights to visit the gardens/winter garden a glow.
Second question, when will Christians have a night to celebrate the winter garden a glow with other like-minded people?