(FāVS News) — On a June weekend in Boise, Idaho, two competing visions of family and religion will play out just miles apart, reflecting a deepening cultural divide in the Gem State.
Mark Fitzpatrick, owner of Old State Saloon in nearby Eagle, will host his second annual “Hetero Awesome Fest” — a two-day event June 20-21 at Cecil D. Andrus Park, across from the state Capitol in Boise, featuring food, art, live music and speeches celebrating what he called “God’s design for sexuality.”
Across town, Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise will hold its own gathering, “All Kinds of Awesome,” welcoming LGBTQ individuals and families on June 21 — a counter to Fitzpatrick’s message, also celebrated during Pride Month.
The dueling events come as Idaho this year became the first state to designate “Traditional Family Values Month,” running from Mother’s Day through Father’s Day. The resolution passed as part of a broader legislative push that has included several measures targeting LGBTQ rights, including a House resolution calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
Mark Fitzpatrick, owner of Old State Saloon. (Photo courtesy of Old State Saloon)
For Fitzpatrick, a nondenominational Christian and father of six, his festival represents more than a business venture. It’s a mission he’s expanding through his new nonprofit, Hetero Awesomeness Inc., designed to “defend and protect traditional family values” and “relentlessly pursue and expose those who are the enemies thereof,” he said.
“My No. 1 target would be people who are the busy, conservative Christian type of person who is not aware of the depths of evil that’s happening from the Pride LGBTQ community,” Fitzpatrick said.
He said society has gone too far in accepting what he called the “wickedness” of LGBTQ lifestyles, particularly transgender people.
“They guilted us into ‘loving and accepting them’ to the point that we have half-naked men reading books to children in libraries,” Fitzpatrick said. “We now need to step up and push back.”
He said he is particularly concerned about children with autism, troubled home lives or social difficulties being encouraged to question their gender iden …