The city could be powerless to stop the event from taking place, despite concerns.

Following in the footsteps of Boston, cishets in Modesto, California now want their own straight pride parade, and they just might get it.

Organizers of the straight pride event in Boston received approval for an application last month, with Mayor Marty Walsh saying the city could not refuse a permit based on “values or endorsements of beliefs.”

However, his office also stressed in a statement that the permit is simply a “step in the process toward receiving a permit.”

“As a next step, the organizers will need to receive necessary approvals from the police department and the licensing board to receive both a parade permit and an entertainment license.”

Now Don Grundmann (above, at left, holding sign), a chiropractor who has run unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate on more than one occasion, is leading efforts, under the name National Straight Pride Coalition, to bring a straight pride event to Modesto.

A flyer circulating on social media says the event will be a celebration of “heterosexuality, masculinity, femininity, babies—born and unborn, western civilization, our wonderful country, [and] Christianity,” and includes a phone number that appears to belong to Grundmann. A link to a GoFundMe campaign returns a dead page. NewNowNext reached out to GoFundMe for comment and will update if we receive a response.

The flyer lists August 24 as the date of the event, and says it will be held at Graceada Park.



The city is considering the permit, according to CBS Sacramento.

“I don’t think we need to give a permit for anything that when you go to the page it talks about whiteness, it talks about western civilization, it talks about being Caucasian. That’s all hate crime stuff to me, that’s not okay,” said city council member Kristi Ah You.

She added that if it was up to her the petition would not be considered.

Grundmann said the event was a cultural response to their opponents, which he described as “anyone that supports the LGBTQ lifestyle.”

“Essentially it boils down to two religious views of the world,” he added. “One is Christianity, which is represented by heterosexuality, a culture of life, and its opponent is the LGBT movement, which is represented by an opposing religion and an opposing view of life.”

The city is expected to decide whether or not to issue a permit for the straight pride event sometime next week, Thomas Reeves, community and media relations officer for Modesto, told the Los Angeles Times.

“Permits to hold any event are granted based on operational feasibility, not based on values and certainly not based on any endorsement of beliefs. So although the city does not share in the beliefs of some groups that choose to hold their events here, we may not be able to deny a permit based on an organization’s values.”