It’s about that time – time for the world’s leather aficionados to gather in San Francisco for the Folsom Street fair. And that means, of course, that it’s time for social conservatives to start hitting out at the controversial event’s sponsors. Yay!
Many of you recall last year’s dust up, when the Catholic League and others launched a boycott against Miller Beer, which had the nerve (!) to put their logo on the Last Dinner-inspired poster seen above. Miller, who has since merged with Coors, ended up having their logo removed and apologized, but didn’t yank their endorsement, a fact that doesn’t sit well with right-leaning website LifeSite:
The 2008 program guide for the event, which features sadomasochistic pornographic material as well as Folsom’s advocacy of the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” and their sale of “religious” sex toys, also includes a Miller advertisement with heavy connotations to the nudity in the parade. It features a rainbow colored beer cap, a beer bottle with the label being stripped off, and a slogan that reads, “No label. All that matters is what’s inside. We’ll drink to that.”
Pray tell, how does that slogan rest on nude connotations? “No label”? If we’re not mistaken, the company’s tipping their rhetorical hat to resisting oppressive, objectifying social categories. They’re free of judgment, which is far more than we can say for Peter LaBarbera, an anti-gay activist who’s never one to miss a public outrage.
His most recent statements, however, may be some of the most asinine, inflammatory we’ve heard to date:
Does MillerCoors have any ethical guidelines for events it will – or will not – promote (through ads) and participate in? Would MillerCoors sell beer and advertise at, say, an Incest Rights festival, or take out an ad in the publication of other openly bigoted gatherings such as a Neo-Nazi rally?
Bill Donohue and his Catholic League have yet to get caught up in the hyperbolic brouhaha, but we’re sure they will!
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Matt
It’s also a time for people to contract diseases LOL.
CitizenGeek
The Folsom Fair is just awful. I have no idea how it’s legal.
ChristopherM
Because some cities find it more ethical to go after crimes that actually hurt people, Citizen.
RS
Why shouldn’t it be legal? It’s completely consensual, parents are warned not to bring impressionable children, local merchants support it, it raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity, supports itself financially, brings in a LOT of dollars to the City, is supported by the local merchants who might be impacted by the street closures, and NO ONE WHO ISN’T INTERESTED HAS TO GO. So why, exactly, should it be illegal? How does it affect you or your high horse?
Doug
To answer Missy LaBarbera’s question, I would say: Yes. MillerCoors does have ethical guidelines for events it will not promote or participate in. I guess that promoting a “Pray Away the Gay” conference would be something they wouldn’t be interested in, or any other event that restricted the civil liberties or promoted intolerance of any citizen. That would be the start of the sorts of events they wouldn’t be interested in, I would guess.
DairyQueen
You should put up this year poster and not last years. It’s a little misleading to your readers.
Charles Merrill
Golden shower queens enjoying all that MillerCoors pissed out on their heads. I’ll skip this year but it was fun to see once.
Madam HoVery
Once again I am confused with the whole christian religion. I thought that picture caricatured De Vinci’s idea of the last supper including HIS IDEA about the IMAGE OF CHRIST! Get a grip christains! No one knows absolutely how Christ looked like. But one thing is for sure–he did not look european. He most likely looked like (drum roll please) an ARAB! He was an Arab, born in an Arabian country! And to the catholics who claim that they use relics to promote concentration–WRONG! If you are all tied up in your asshole over an artist’s rendition then you ARE AN IDOLATOR!
John
Public nudity isn’t necessarily a crime in California. Section 314 of the California Penal Code says it is only illegal when done “willfully and lewdly” and “where there are present other persons to be offended or annoyed thereby.” In 1972, the California Supreme Court ruled that although municipalities can enact stricter policies if they wish, state law does not regard simple nudity as indecent exposure.
San Francisco decided to “pass” on the stricter legislation. While some members of the religious right have attended and filed complaints in the past, they’ve yet to convince a court that they weren’t there specifically to protest (knowing exactly what it is). Legally speaking, if you go to an event with the intent of stirring up trouble for the purposes of litigation, all bets are off as far as “offended and annoyed” goes.
DairyQueen
I will say it again: You should put up this year poster and not last years. It’s a little misleading to your readers. Based on Madam HoVery comment people seem to think that this is this year’s poster.
elijah
Repent…
elijah
Firsly I would like to challenge the Folsom Fools to recant and apologize for their blasphemous insults towards Jesus Christ…
Show me how many homosexuals have done good as Christian Missionaries
have done in the past… Hospitals, Schools, Universities, Democracy,
(The very freedom of speech that you are currently misusing),
amongst hundreds of thousands or inventions that makes life EASIER for
people today. Show me One of those Homos that has done just that and
then I will listen to you (the money that they gather for charity is just to sooth their concience and of course to propagate their course and show that they are doing SOME good for the community; it is just to justify their deeds and nothing else).
It is obvious that your support of the Homosexual agenda just shows
how little you know about the exteme perversions and harmfull
exercises that they get involved in to give them that edge in their
orgasms (now that really expresses their care for their fellow man now
doesn’t it?); that would have been considered as assult in a court of
law a few years back. Just look at one of the sponsors of the Folsom
Street Fair called “Straight Hell”, now if you want to have these
pshycopaths to run loose you will allow the destuction of the whole new world
you hold so dear. They are the sadists, rapists, pedophiles and
destuctive in nature to themselves and every one around them. You may
think that they are oppressed for being gay but what right do they
have as a community to demand anything if they haven’t given us
anything that will help our future generation, all they are giving and
spreading is HIV AIDS and STD’S…