Folsom Street Blues

The annual Folsom Street Festival in San Francisco is upon us once more. It is promoted as the largest homosexual sadomasochism festival in the world – and a family appropriate event. It is expected to attract 300,000 participants. It officially sanctioned by the city of San Francisco and is partly funded with city dollars that are collected by a 14% hotel tax. That means that everyone who travels to San Francisco and stay at a hotel is helping finance the festival through public tax dollars. The festival includes bondage demonstrations, people being impaled by metal hooks with chains attached, whipping demonstrations and lots of other festival fun.

This year’s official promotional poster for the event is a depiction of the Da Vinci’s Last Supper. But instead of Jesus and his disciples the scene is populated by half naked men and women in sadomasochistic leather gear. Bread and wine are replaced by sex toys. The proud festival sponsors’ logos are displayed across the bottom. In this country they have the right to the lifestyle they lead. But is this sort of gratuitous offense really necessary?

This all takes place in Nancy Pelosi’s district, the current Speaker of the House, and leader of the Democratic congressional majority. At a recent news conference a brave reporter asked Speaker Pelosi if it was fair to have people staying in San Francisco hotels pay for an event that is highly offensive to many of them? The intrepid reporter also asked if she considered the Last Supper poster damaging to Christians and whether she personally considered it offensive?

Speaker Pelosi did not answer the question of whether she found it offensive. She did state it was not damaging to Christians and that she supported it as a matter of free speech. OK, I agree that people can say what they want as a “matter of free speech” even if it is stupid or offensive. But here is the real point of this issue. What if the tables were turned and a promoter of a Christian event published something that was equally offensive to the homosexual sadomasochistic community? I frankly can’t think of what could that could be but let’s assume it is possible.

The howl of rage from the liberals would be deafening. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would hold a press conference denouncing the “haters”. There would be speeches in the congressional well by democrats about intolerance – condemning the narrow minded homophobes. Reverend Jackson and Al Sharpton would march in protest. And there is the double standard. It is OK to attack, satirize, or otherwise offend the Christian community but not the other way around. It goes to the fact that the group most intolerant to a broad and open discussion of ideas and free speech is the liberal community. Free speech is only tolerated if it subscribes to the liberal catechism.

I guess the Christians are an easy target to attack because they don’t shoot back (and I mean with guns, not verbally). Maybe next year the Folsom Street Festival can publish a brutally offensive satire of Mohammad. That might be the end of the festival as it goes up in a mushroom cloud after a Fatwa sanctioning it’s destruction is issued. But at least the festival would have exercised their right of free speech!