Mark Schneider, an adult man and reigning commodore of the Riverfest event in La Crosse, Wisconsin, didn’t appreciate it when 14-year-old Emily St. Sauver went rollerblading by his float just before the start of the town’s Maple Leaf parade on Saturday — because she was carrying a pole with two rainbow flags. So he (allegedly) shoved her to the ground.
The teen was rollerblading and carrying a flag pole with two rainbow flags — one a hybrid of the American flag and the gay pride flag — as members of 7 Rivers LGBT Resource Center’s float prepared for the parade about 9:45 a.m. Saturday on Rose Street, said Roseanne St. Sauver, the center’s executive director. Commodore Mark Schneider, who was on a float nearby, approached the girl and put his hands on the flagpole, St. Sauver said. St. Sauver walked over, placed her hands on the pole and told him, “Please stop, she’s a 14-year-old child.”
“He said, ‘I do not care. Look what you are teaching them,’” St. Sauver said. That’s when, St. Sauver said, Schneider shoved the girl with his body. St. Sauver said Schneider told the girl: “Go to a country where they will hang people like you.”
Schneider denies he shoved anyone (“Why would I push a 14-year-old girl?”) and insists his problem wasn’t with anybody’s sexual orientation, but with their desecration of the flag: “It all had to do with the discoloring of the American flag. Other commodores on the commodore float were upset because the flag is offensive to veterans … This is not an issue of gays. This is an issue with the American flag.”
Interestingly, the woman originally calling for Schneider to step down as Riverfront commodore? She’s not only the LGBT center’s executive director; she appears to be the girl’s mother. They share a last name.
In the meantime, Schneider has apologized to Emily, says Riverfest in a statement: “This apology was accepted, with the understanding that both organizations will collaborate to promote La Crosse and the surrounding community as a safe place for all people; where all members of the community can be celebrated.”
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.
Bareback Cuntessa
Yet ANOTHER story of an old white right-wing asshole showing his deathly fear and cowardice in the face of the world moving forward, past his sorry, bloated, rotting face.
Memo to old white right-wing assholes:
GO AND FUCKING DIE ALREADY, YOU USELESS PIECES OF SHIT.
JUST. FUCKING. DIE.
UMB
To turn his own phrase, look at the teen suicides due to gay bullying and look at what you are teaching them.
samthor
instead of looking for a cure for “the gay”,
maybe its more important we find a cure for “asshole bullies”
Kev C
Commodore Schneider, gay flagpole grabber.
Jake the libertarian
Well I am gay and a veteran… I kind of like the hybrid flag. Although I absolutely can’t stand teenage girls. Really loud and judgemental….
drums
Funny, my friends and I were just discussing the weird attitudes people have about the American flag just earlier today. How can you be so indoctrinated by the love of an inanimate object that your good sense gets overcome by emotion and you SHOVE A CHILD? Grown men shoving little girls: a billion times more embarrassing and disrespectful than “desecration” of a flag.
D Smith
as a veteran i REALLY wonder how shoving another person to the ground is not disrespectful to veterans? this young girl was simply exercising her first amendment rights by sporting a rainbow flag…
honestly if anything it is symptomatic of the nationwide bigotry lgbtqa individuals face every day when public figures can shove one of us down and spew vile hate towards us in response…
and to use quotes from the above article…
“This is not an issue of gays. This is an issue with the American flag”
“Go to a country where they will hang people like you.”
because you know… bigots are consistent in nothing if not their inconsistency
lalone
“Go to a country where they will hang people like you.”
Where do they still hang 14 year old rollerbladers?
southpaugh
The poor little girl is probably straight, in attendance with the LGBT brigade in solidarity with her mom, and it’s her mother who is gay. Yeah, lookit what they’re teaching: tolerance, diversity, free speech, celebration of unity. Oh! The Humanity! What is this world coming to?
Nicholas Bandur
Hey its me yal and none of you renamber me……but not the time and place
i hate how this guy tries to justify himself into saying…i have no problem with gay people >.> utter lie…but anyways
I dont think the 14 year old did wrong but i dont think the man shouldve done that
but all in all i think its more along the lines of bigots who did wrong.
peteNsfo
“both organizations will collaborate to promote La Crosse and the surrounding community as a safe place for all people; where all members of the community can be celebrated.”
MESSAGE DELIVERED… LOUD & CLEAR.