Tense Modesto straight pride rally has militia, Proud Boys face counterprotesters
For the second year, a planned “straight pride” rally in Modesto morphed into something different as militia members, Proud Boys and counterprotesters faced off Saturday afternoon.
While at times contentious, the rally and protest on McHenry Avenue in front of a closed Planned Parenthood were nonviolent and there were no arrests, according to Modesto police.
About 150 members of far-right groups including the Proud Boys and different militia chapters joined Bay Area chiropractor and anti-abortion activist Don Grundmann, who initiated the straight pride events.
Last August, his highly publicized event struggled to find a venue, and ultimately was held in a private barn before the owner ended it early. Then Grundmann and about 20 supporters held a public protest in front of Planned Parenthood but were vastly outnumbered by some 200 counterprotesters.
Grundmann brought a following of about a dozen supporters to his cause Saturday. They carried banners about “black genocide” and railed against Planned Parenthood. But most of the participants belonged to militia and other far-right groups.
The Central Valley Militia organized a “Patriots Against Pedophilia” rally at the same time as Grundmann’s event. They were joined by members of the California State Militia, as well as the Central Valley Proud Boys. The latter is part of a nationwide far-right organization that has been classified by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League as an extremist group. Members of the California State Militia made headlines earlier this year when they arrived armed to a supposed Black Lives Matter protest in Oakdale that never materialized.
A California State Militia member who identified himself as Piper, because he smokes a pipe, said they came to be part of the anti-human trafficking protest. “We heard there might be a disruption, so we came out so there wouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “Our group stayed on the sidewalk and didn’t go to the other side because we don’t brawl.”
Meanwhile, the Central Valley Militia unfurled large banners that read “Patriots Against Pedophilia: One Solution Luke 17:2” next to an image of an assault rifle.
A Central Valley Proud Boys organizer who identified himself by only as Odin said the group took part because militia members had asked them to provide support.
This year’s event was met by a much smaller counterprotest than last year, but largely by design. Organizers decided against engaging face-to-face with Grundmann’s group, the militias and Proud Boys because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the potential for violence. Instead, scaled-back demonstrations were planned, including a morning sidewalk chalk art project and a drive-by car counterprotest.
Turlock residents Michelle Park and wife Melanie Martin led a small contingent of counterprotesters in the morning, hours before the scheduled rally, to paint messages of LGBTQ inclusion and passages about love from the Bible on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood. The group was watched over by about a dozen militia members already assembled nearby.
More than two dozen vehicles took part in a drive-by protest organized by Modesto resident Zoe Hayes. She said with the COVID-19 and the bad air quality recently, it wasn’t safe to stage a traditional protest. Instead, people wrote slogans on their cars like “No H8 Allowed in Modesto,” “Go Home Haters,” and “Black Trans Lives Matter.”
The car protest took several laps driving past the straight pride and far-right rally, honking, waving rainbow flags and blaring music. Eventually Modesto police closed down McHenry Avenue between Orangeburg and Granger avenues, ending that counterprotest.
Most of the straight pride and far-right ralliers remained on the west side of McHenry Avenue for the event, standing in front of Planned Parenthood, which had been roped off with red tape. The building was closed and no one was inside.
A smaller group of counterprotesters, from a dozen to two dozen, amassed on the opposite east side of McHenry Avenue. About midway through the event, more than a dozen people from the straight pride/militia/Proud Boys contingent crossed the street to directly confront the counterprotesters.
Stand-offs between the two groups were at times tense, with yelling, cursing, finger-pointing and water being tossed. Modesto police officers maintained a low profile throughout the demonstration.
“Most of it is, honestly, misunderstanding at the end of the day from the other side,” said Eli Coleman, a counterprotester who is also co-founder of Turlock Black Lives Matter. “The things I’ve heard, ‘save the children’; we are saying save the children. They’re flying an American flag; I fly an American flag. I think at the end of the day, it’s a lot of misguided energy that’s in the wrong place and a lot of misinformation and divisiveness.”
Grundmann, for his part, said he wanted to hold another straight pride rally because they’re needed across the country to counter what he called “sodomite parades.” He also said his group was there to protest what he called an attack on the Black community by Planned Parenthood. He said he did not coordinate with the militia groups and Proud Boys, but called their causes related.
“They are cousins of ours in the sense that they are hoping to stop pedophilia and attacks against children,” he said. “When we are protesting against Planned Parenthood, we are doing the same thing in a different way.”
Bee staff writer Julian Lopez contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 7:17 PM.
