Bauer and the others pointed out they have not received much other opposition to the festival.

“I expected a lot more negativity than we have received, to be honest,” Bauer said. “I think I expected it on the regular, every day and from a lot of people. Really, it’s just been a handful of people — maybe five people — who have been outspoken enough to say this doesn’t belong in our town.

We’ve been able to say, ‘OK, we respect your opinion, but this really does belong in your town.”

Goll added: “So we are going to chug on and do it. It will be fascinating.”

OC Pride organizers point out that Orange City has events that recognize the city's historic Dutch culture and growing Hispanic population, so why not add gay culture to the mix as well?

“There will always be a reason not to because there is always going to be somebody that doesn’t want this here. That just shouldn’t be and that’s not a good enough reason,” Mahr said. “Somebody messaged us and said, ‘If there was an event like this in my town growing up, I probably wouldn’t have tried to commit suicide.’