Anti-gay group sneaks into Vancouver Pride Parade, hands out 2,500 fake condoms with hateful letters
Did you attend Sunday’s Pride Parade in downtown Vancouver? Do you remember seeing a man with bright pink hair wearing a shirt that read “The Flying Spaghetti Monster Is Gay”?
According to the Daily Xtra, it turns out the man is anti-gay activist Bill Whatcott, who was accompanied by four other parade marchers behind the banner of the “Calgary Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster”. They are part of a group of conservative evangelical Christians from Edmonton and North Dakota and were present at Vancouver’s Pride festivities with a sole goal of crashing the spirit of the Pride parade.
On an online forum, Whatcott claims that his band of “elite covert social conservative activists” handed out 2,500 “gospel condoms” containing a long homophobic letter inside each wrapper. As they were seemingly a legitimate group, Trojan also gave them 500 latex condoms to hand out for free.
“While evangelism and the issues of homofascism and where one will spend the rest of eternity are deadly serious issues, we decided that seeing as we purchased our parade permit fair and square and seeing as all the pagans were having fun while rebelling against God, we would have fun too, while evangelizing the parade route and winning souls for the Lord,” writes Whatcott on the forum.
He also told Daily Xtra that the con to disguise themselves as individuals who identify as LGBT as well as an legitimate group and parade entry was a year-long project costing $4,000.
One of the forum’s members commented to Whatcott’s post, saying “Brilliantly done! You looked appropriately disgusting! The grotesque dancing, the placement of your little coin purse, the ugly colors, the blasphemous beads, I can see how your enemies didn’t recognize you; I didn’t either.”
At one point, their “cover” was nearly blown when one female parade spectator quickly opened her fake condom after receiving it from one of the anti-gay marchers.
“While most of the people who received our Gospel condoms never opened them on the parade route, this lady opened her Gospel condom as soon as she received it and started reading it,” Whatcott wrote online.
“As she read it she started hyperventilating and was visibly upset. Jonathan realized our cover was on the verge of being blown as the chubby, almost naked woman was beginning to scream, so he quickly grabbed the Gospel condom from her and apologized and told her a homophobe handed it to him and that he meant to give her a Trojan condom.”
Whatcott applied as a parade entrant under the fake name of “Matthew Davidson”. The group’s entry was approved by the organizers at the Vancouver Pride Society as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a legitimate parody religion and atheist organization that had previously participated in the Vancouver Pride Parade.
There were no red flags about the organization as they went as far as creating a fake phone number and website to support their identity and cause.
This is not the first time Whatcott has stirred trouble. He has mounting legal bills to pay for other previous actions that also promote hate and discrimination against LGBT individuals.
You can read Whatcott’s full letter contained within the “gospel condom” here (warning: this material contains content which may be offensive to some).
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Bill Whatcott takes a photo with openly gay BC NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert.
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