On September 17, the North Texas Pride Foundation held its 11th annual “Come as You Are” pride festival, which was billed as a “family-oriented day of fun.” General admission tickets for adults were priced at $10, while the event prominently advertised that children 12 and younger were admitted for free.
The event was hosted in a City of Plano venue, as well as advertised on the VisitPlano website, which is “the official destination management and marketing organization for the City of Plano and is completely funded by the Hotel Occupancy Tax.”
The “family-oriented” event featured a mobile STD-testing van, a drag show for children, and many vendors selling sexualized merchandise, such as one selling magnets featuring slogans such as “Dick+Ass,” “Suck! F**k! Repeat!,” and “Anal Queen.”
A group of citizens showed up at the event to protest what was happening.
Ali Jamal, a political activist, filmed these protesters apparently being harassed by a female attendee who allegedly made several attempts to grab his genitals.
When the protesters asked her to back away, the woman coughed in their direction and chided, “I have COVID! I have AIDS! You’re getting my AIDS!”
Participants in attendance at the “family-oriented” festival also performed a mock exorcism in front of a police officer and screamed obscenities.
The Dallas Express reached out to Plano City Manager Mark Israelson, as well as Mayor John Muns and each member of the city council for comment on this story.
Steve Stoler, director of media relations for the City of Plano, responded to our requests by email:
“The 11th annual ‘Come as You Are’ Pride Festival was not a City of Plano event. Like many private events held in our community, it was held at a City venue. Festival organizers went through the City’s Special Event process to secure the venue. In this case it was the Saigling House, located at Haggard Park. The Saigling House is owned by the city, but operated by the ArtCentre of Plano.”
Stoler concluded, “During the event, the immediate area around the historic house was fully fenced. Access was restricted to event attendees who purchased tickets. It is common practice for the City to allow our diverse community to hold events at our venues.”
The Dallas Express also reached out to Collin County state representatives Jeff Leach, Scott Sanford, and Matt Shaheen for comment on the event and the City of Plano’s hosting of the event. Only Shaheen responded.
“I see serious moral, ethical, and legal concerns with the September 17th event that occurred in a Plano Park by the North Texas Pride Foundation. Children twelve years of age and under were targeted and were recklessly exposed to obscene materials with alarming sexual content and transgenders conducting themselves in sexually inappropriate ways,” Shaheen wrote.
Shaheen went on, “Federal, state and locally elected officials are involved to assure parents that everything will be done to protect Texas children from being sexualized in this manner.”
Shaheen mentioned, “We are in discussions with city officials requesting a thorough investigation of this appalling event. We have also asked for meetings with the executives of corporate sponsors to express our outrage and demand change. The sexualization of children will not be tolerated.”
Protect the CHILDREN! This sounds utterly disgusting.
Then please stay home.
Why don’t you stay home
It was a “family” event. They lied.
Sounds like it was pretty easy to tell what was going on. All parents had the option to not attend with their children.
Also, how many households watched The Sopranos? How many of the children became mobsters?
This whole controversy is just another bit of performance art.
Exactly! We know that bunches of families watched”Game of Thrones”. There was bunches of straight sex exhibited on that show. How many of these people were squawking about how lurid that exhibition was?
Elected officials being cowards afraid of controversy, wanting to portray Plano as diverse.
Those days are over, Plano leaders.
You can be both anti-discriminatory and adhere to enforcing obscenity laws regarding minors.
Take a stand or get out of the way for your replacements.
Take a stand against what?
Sex education? Kid-friendly fashion shows? The same kind of souvenirs you can find at Mardi Gras?
Get real, bud. Nothing about this event was any more obscene than a normal day in the U.S.
I’d rather we talk about child marriages or the fact our child protective services sold children into sexual slavery. But yeah, let’s talk about the small gathering of gays, that’s the real battle, right?
Mardi Gras is once a year not an everyday thing and definitely not for children. Now those other problems you listed, child marriages and child protective services selling children into sexual slavery are important, but what happened in Plano was children being sexualized. I’m a Christian and I’ll love you as a person but what you do I can and never will like or love. God made man and woman for each other, not man and man or woman and woman.
God made us all.
How were children being sexualized? I think most clothing manufacturers are guilty of that, but nothing in the story sounds like that.
I think ultimately that this event is for adults. If like minded adults want to bring their children to the event, they should be fine. But don’t get it confused with a childrens event. ITS NOT! You know it’s not. Don’t pretend that it is.
You can demonize anything you want in this world. In this brief article: a few choice examples of what one would consider sodom & gamora, only taps into prudes, who hyper sexualize what scares them. Add a few kids & your image expounds to deviancy. If you raise your family without stigma, this is normal fodder & support. Add a protester & you ruin a good time. Write a less biased article & everyone needs to live and let live. Crucify if it makes you feel better. I love living rent free in the opposing sides head.
Go back to the closet
Seems the COP needs to enforce the law. According to this piece, this event sexualized children. I have gay relatives. They would not and do not participate in X rated behavior nor expose their children. Is pedophilia occurring in Plano public spaces? Isn’t this a criminal offense?
Just having children there and having such refrigerator magnets and such as described is by definition “Grooming” children. That is and always will be unlawful. With regard to sexual performances or displays in public at family gatherings? this was organized by at least 3 separate groups, including parents. It was done as a FUND RAISER therefore financial benefit.RICO act is the proper address for prosecution and individuals can sue under RICO.
Think about it.
If you don’t want your children to see it, don’t go…
This is the dumbest thing ever said
Why? This was a private event, and people paid to get in. Do you see any of the parents who DID attend complaining? No, just outside agitators with an agenda.
Family event. This means that there should be no sexualization happening.
No sexual displays in public, etc.
The sponsors LIED to the city. The City can BAN them permanently for that without issue.
Looks like the sickos have found their way to Texas. Sad.
Newsflash, these “sickos” have always existed across the world. It’s never been a new thing.
Interesting you think they’re sickos for holding a kid-friendly fashion show while straight and publicized ones of lingerie seem fine. It’s perfectly okay to marry children in some states, but not to tell them about the existence of STDs, apparently. And the buttons? Adults can buy them anywhere, including Mardi Gras, whete phallic and yonic imagery is exceptionally public.
Get real, John.
Yea Adults. Alot of people would like to not see their kids turn out like you
They probably came from California
As if there hasn’t been any exploitation of children in the past? Such an ignorant statement! How long have you had your head buried up your ass “ John”?
I don’t claim to be a liberal or a conservative but I don’t understand how things like this could be considered educational or entertaining for children! It seems our nation has lost sight of moral values (Texas included).
Yeah, the state whose child protective services sold the kids into sexual slavery and did an actual human traffiking to another state suddenly lost their moral values.
A loss of moral values is when you tell kids STDs exist and to be careful in the future and you let them see big hair and cool clothes at a fashion show.
Hah. Comedic.
Oh yes, we need to protect kids from sex ed and fashion shows, not…*reads notes*…our state’s child protective services from s*lling kids in human t*affiking or child m*rriages.
C’mon. Let’s be real.
Just because we have problems dose not mean we need to make more problems
seems very sensational! I bet there was absolute evil and not a single good thing occurred. The horror, the horror.
If you only want to sensationalize and extol alt-right purity and virtue, please discontinue sending me your emails!
The organizers should have been shut down at the first demonstration of obscenity. The vendors bringing the buttons should have been removed…unless community standards of Plano residents include pedophilia and child abuse. The CityCouncil members who oversaw this should be removed.
There is no applicable law that would have shut down the sales of the buttons YOU deem “obscene”
Actually there are laws that could be applicable. Parents are arrested in their own homes for for “grooming:” children sexually and or allowing it knowingly.
It fits in this instance. It was advertised as Family Friendly, this means that there are limits of acceptability with regard to activities and actions and even pseudo-official statements made there.
I suggest you grow up.
Is Dallas Express a news organization or the moral police? Seems like whoever wrote this article went out of their way to find anything they could to complain about. There are always protestors at these events holding signs that read much worse than anything reportedly found and mentioned in this article.
It would seem Dallas Express is a right-wing, fascist rag. Not sure how I started getting their junk emails.
The fascists are people like yourself who claim rights above those of society.
Why do gays have to advertise their sexual orientation. I am not gay but I don’t go around telling the world
If a heterosexual person did these things they would be in jail.
FYI: The whole world is not run for the benefit or protection of “The Children”.
Moral standards and sexuality are pretty obviously not shared values in America, in Texas, and in Plano. Any children who were at the event were there with their parents and the event met the children’s parents’ moral standards and sexual exposure levels.
The parents choose to be there with their children. I do NOT see any of them complaining. Just people outside this [the LGBTQ] community are incensed, people who would never attend anyway.
This is disgusting. This is what is wrong with our young children, today. Exposed to trash. I have lived in Plano for 50 years and I would have never exposed my children to anything like this or even my dog. It is time for people of Plano to stand up and say “No Way Will I tolerate These Affairs in our City.” We need to protect our Children from actions of this kind. City leaders need to watch what is going on our City. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!!!
There should be arrest made for indecent exposure of a child/children. Period
Hey – Steve Stoler, director of media relations for the City of Plano: You are a TOOL, lack backbone and any form of a moral compass. How unfortunate that you didn’t have the fortitude to DENY the “diversified” group from having the PERMIT to conduct their RECRUITMENT to their agenda.
State Rep Matt Shaheen: THANK YOU for having the TRUE GRIT to Speak the Truth about what is truly going on with these specific group of malcontents that are methodically trying to take over American society. If they become the standard, America will fall. Period. Check history on that!!!
The incident discribed in this article certainly represents assault ( the threat to physically attack ) ) and possibly assault and battery ( if the journalist were actually touched ).
This may also represent a hate crime and /or a terroristic threat ( as regards the threat to spread of AIDs).
This needs to brought to the attention of the Collin County district attorney and probably the federal authorities (FBI) .
These people are all mentally disturbed with exceptionally high rates of suicide alcoholism and drug use. We must not stand idly by as they attempt to brazenly brainwash our children with their sick ideology. They realize to win their immoral assault on society on all levels they must attck the youngest and innocently naive of society, our kids. People rise up against them now. Do not be afraid, be strong and proud or the battle will be lost. It is time to put these Godless perverted deviants back under the rocks from whence they came.
Suicide? Well at least they are doing something right
Never forget that a large part of the LGBTQ+ scene is sadomasochism. If they feel like they’re in a position of political power, then they will move forward into more open displays of repulsive behavior designed to humiliate and debase the normies around who have to witness it in public.
If you want an example of where this all leads to, then Google “Folsom Street Fair” and look at the images tab. That is where these people want to go everywhere. And tolerance is a one way street for them.
Something tells me that you’ve pleasured yourself a number of times looking at these Folsom Street Fair images! Haha
Thanks for the typical example of the filth your crowd brings. BTW, the “+” in “LGBTQ+” is for people who rape children. That’s who cotton with.
Wow! Again…false.
Your very first sentence is unequivocally false.
Want to protect the children? Keep them away from republicans. It’s always republicans that are caught grooming, I.e. Rep. Matt Forehead.
Democrats are never arrested or prosecuted when caught. We could go back to Chappaquidick and forward from there. There are HUNDREDS of examples of dems not being prosecuted. Just as there are hundreds of examples of law abiding citizens arrested and convicted in Dem held jurisdictions for expressing their rights peacefully.
If we include the thousands of BLM criminals that did BILLIONS of dollars of damage in the past few years, we find that the left is the fascist society.
I have a question for the pro LGBT community at large.
I hear the conversation “We just want to be treated as you would treat anyone else, fairly and with respect”
If this is true then treat yourselves with respect. If you are truly serious about the above then the organizers (Private group) who are trying to promote civility and love. Promote that side not the back alley nasty.
Act like grownups take control over your events
I am not a great price but the photo convinced me that the saying is true: UGLY as sin is what I see being reflected in the photo.
The insane offenses against children described don’t sound any crazier than walking through Spencer’s in the mall. You gonna go after that too? If the person was grabbing and making threats of COVID and AIDS then they should have charges filed. I see there is no video even though it was said to have been filmed. That does sound like something that was exaggerated or made up entirely. The bottom line is the event itself is not mandatory. It is not up to anyone to decide what is moral and correct in how someone raises their children (obviously within the bounds of the law since I know some Jack A is gonna chime in with that). If a parent wants to let their kid watch an R rated film it’s no one else’s business. It is just hilarious that the party of small government wants the government to step in and legislate their morals onto others. It doesn’t work that way!
Indeed! When did everyone become so judgy?Doesn’t their bible say “Judge not….?
Any parent who exposed their children to these events should be charged with child abuse period!! Save our children Protect our children!!
Thank you for staying on top of this. It disgusts me to see our children being sexually abused!
Kids shouldn’t have been there. Point blank period. Adults only. Allow kids to be kids.
Seems strange that people would be inclusive for their church groups who openly abuse children, but then wanna say something about drag queens and gay pride. There is nothing wrong with gay pride and if you don’t agree with it, you shouldn’t show up at the event go to church instead. The fact that it’s 2022 and we have to keep dealing with people who are not open with all walks of life lets me realize that these Christians are not Christians at all.
You must not have a clue what a Christian is then. Did Jesus allow for the sinfulness to be carried out in the temple? No he destroyed the temple and put the leaders who allowed the sinful behavior in their place. He called them out on their sins. He stopped the sin from happening. God is only open to all walks of life when they quit their sins and follow the ways of Jesus. If you want forgiven of your sins, you can be forgiven but after you are forgiven you cannot go out and repeat the sin. That means that you are just toying with God, your heart is not pure and there will be no forgiveness.
IF a parent did this in private, Family services would seize their children and act to remove them permanently. I am sure that the District Attorney can find evidence that what I have said has happened in the recent pst in this jurisdiction. Therefore a CRIME was committed by the parents and by the sponsors.As there were three or more partied involved and because there was FINANCIAL cause, this is a RICO ACT VIOLATION.
I strongly suggest that the DA and or private parties begin RICO ACT actions against those involved.
This will resolve future issues regarding ALL groups such as these committing this atrocities against children.
Some would prefer taking their kids to a gun show….😵💫
This is terrible for children to be exposed too this. Why is this even being allowed in public? Let’s confront the sponsors and hold them accountable.