A masked anti-LGBTQ+ heckler and pedestrian carrying a pansexual flag, 7th and Philadelphia streets, June 8, 2024. Photos by David Loomis. Click to enlarge.
Reported opinion
By David Loomis
INDIANA – On sunny Saturday afternoon at the Seventh and Philadelphia pedestrian crosswalk downtown, Larissa Bohn asked one of the masked men in formation on the south side of the intersection why he and 16 other guys were wearing masks.
“Why don’t you take your masks off?,” Bohn, of Indiana, asked.
“’Well, you guys wear masks,’” Bohn recalled the guy’s reply.
You mean for Covid? Bohn asked.
Masked men wave controversial “appeal to heaven” flag, Philadelphia Street, June 8, 2024. Click to enlarge.
No, the guy said.
End of discussion.
Puzzled, Bohn, her girlfriend and their two dogs crossed the street to IRMC Park, where a spirited gay pride festival was revving. The crowd packing the park was mostly oblivious to the 17 men across the street uniformly outfitted in neck gaiters, khaki cargo pants, dark T-shirts, combat boots and white-supremacy flags.
“I might have flipped them off,” Bohn allowed.
THE SECOND ANNUAL Pride Alliance of Indiana festival was among celebrations scheduled worldwide during June. Federal authorities have warned of violence this month by terrorist groups waging culture war against LGBTQ+ groups. In Indiana, Pa., a police presence was unmistakable on Saturday. No arrests were reported on Sunday.
Anti-LGBTQ+ heckler waves Patriot Front flag at Pride Alliance of Indiana festival, June 8, 2024. Click to enlarge.
In March, a similar event drew a half-dozen black-clad masked men waving a Confederate flag at a Pride Alliance fundraiser a block east of Saturday’s festival. Their anti-LGBTQ+ chants were unprintable.
Saturday’s milder-mannered mob waved flags flown by the white-supremacist Patriot Front group and Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Intermittent bull-horned chants about nation, family and liberty struggled to compete with dance music from the festival stage a half block away.
ON THE NORTH SIDE of Philly Street, one observer wondered about objections to drag queens and other festival entertainments.
Ashley Wolfe, treasurer, Pride Alliance Indiana, views festival hecklers, 7th and Philadelphia streets, Indiana, Pa., June 8, 2024.
“I’ve seen way worse behavior at Homecoming,” the middle-age Indiana man said, requesting anonymity to protect his job.
Ashley Wolfe, treasurer of Pride Alliance Indiana, viewed the mini-mob across the street from IRMC Park.
“Each group is doing their own thing on this beautiful day,” Wolfe said. “Liberty is for everybody, not just for these guys.”
Editor’s note: This story was published June 10 and republished June 13 to accommodate reader comments.
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David Loomis, Ph.D., emeritus professor of journalism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, is editor of The HawkEye.
The HawkEye invites comments on this and other issues of community interest. Email doloomis@live.iup.edu or click on the “contact us” drop-down menu, above.
READER COMMENTS:
From: gdavis286c2cccab, June 10, 2024
According to the local Indiana press this weekend there was a free speech gathering with two opposing groups on one particular issue. One group supporting every known entity, splinter group or whomever wanted to show up…Great! That is a perfect example of that the free speech thingie that is of the hallmarks of our Nation’s beginning. According to this publication however the other peaceably assembling group held opinions that did not sit well with the alphabet soup group. Of course, operating from the position of “strength”, the alphabet soup group, hereafter referred to ASG, as they do like abbreviations. Well, answers were demanded for questions that were unimportant and immaterial but, that wasn’t good enough. So of course, the magical fickeled finger of fate was thrown. And that’s OK too, see above; that freedom of speech thingie.
216 miles to the south east of Indiana there was another gathering in Washington, DC at the White House. This group, self-identifying as a pro-Palestine, pro Hamas ASG also. They were described by the media as peaceable and by extension obeying the local laws.
Film otherwise shows something a little different. Screaming , “kill the Jews” , “kill the Zionists” and my all time favorite, “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free”. I find the last one hilarious because when you ask these geniuses, “which river and which sea” they don’t know. Additionally, they were vandalizing National monuments, assaulting Police Officers and US Parks personnel. Thank you public schools and the modern day colleges.
In the end, there are two sets of sets of laws in this Country. One set is reserved for people and groups that hate this Country, what it stands for and differs with what they want. The regime supports and defends this group. Everybody else is going to get the hammer and especially if it differs with the regime.
Here is the icing on the cake. Let’s just replace the word Jews with blacks and the word Zionist with the word homosexual, or queer or gay. Whichever you prefer. We will once again have a chance to watch peaceful protest happen all over the country, burning everything down to the ground and consequences for no one. We constantly hear that white men are the problem, it’s all their fault. They are to blame for everything. Truth be told, it white males were the problem; and I mean REALLY the problem, you would know it
Reply from doloomis, editor:
Within the past two weeks, two politically prominent white guys were convicted by juries of their peers by applying the laws evenly. Where are these two different sets of laws in these two cases? Where is the hammer? Where is the regime?
From: gdavis286c2cccab
One is political opponent of the guy who claims to be the leader of this nation and that was described as incompetent to stand trial for stealing classified as a Senator and Vice-President.
The other is just a crack head, stripper-knocker-upper who ignores his daughter and does not want to pay child support.
November 5th will tell the tale.
Reply from doloomis, editor:
Your comment appears to focus on Hunter Biden, a private citizen, as it ignores the moral and ethical failings of the “political opponent,” former President Donald Trump, a convicted felon, whose state and federal criminal indictments total 88 felony charges, not including an $88 million civil judgment against him in a sexual assault and defamation case.
thehawkeyeonlinenews.wordpress.com 
As always I remain amused at Dr Loomis’s consistently and massively issued liberal outcries which I happily define as Bovine Effluvia. And, I do thank him for that consistent entertainment.
David (aka J. David Truby, Shelocta, PA).
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but facts are facts…