Yelm Pride Showcases LGBT Pro-Cop Cooperation
LGBT activists have come a long way from the Stonewall Riot in terms of interactions with police.
Saturday, June 10th 2023
Yelm, WA held its first gay pride parade, an event which has spurred much controversy in the community. Spearheaded by a drag performer who identifies as “Lady L,” Yelm pride consisted of a street fair with a variety of vendors and ended with an all-ages drag show in the Community Center.
Together, vendors, volunteers and police may have outnumbered actual attendees at any given point in time. The dreary overcast weather may partly explain the poor attendance, but several other factors likely played into it. First, it’s doubtful that a gay pride event is going to attract large numbers in such a rural area. Second, multiple gay pride events happened throughout the region that day, splitting potential attendees between them. All this happened with the neighboring farmer’s market boosting attendance somewhat.
I spoke with Ryan, from the activist group “We The People Against Communism,” (WTPAC for short) who attended with several other counter protesters. She recounted her experience for me.
According to Ryan, there were, “70 police officers at one point; state, city and sheriffs, a drone and a tower where they sat watching us with binoculars the whole time.” The sight was absurd. I attended the event briefly myself and can attest that the number of police officers patrolling the grounds rivalled the number of vendors working stands at the event.
It was especially odd in the context of recent campaigns leftists have spearheaded to defund and hinder police in Washington State. After George Floyd’s death, anti-cop sentiment skyrocketed on the left. Democrats passed multiple bills restricting policing in the state. Antifa would regularly tussle with riot police and spray “ACAB” graffiti anywhere they could. Now, that anti-cop vitriol seems to have abated. We are not aware of any gay pride attendee openly taking issue with the massive police presence at their event. Strange, considering LGBT activists have historically been distrustful of police.
If anything, the police and WTPAC counter protestors appear to have been more distrustful of each other. “Before the event started,” Ryan explained, “an officer approached us with ‘I just want to make sure you’re not going to shoot anyone.’” It was an odd comment, considering that no weapons could be seen among the WTPAC crowd of counter protestors. Police were the only individuals openly carrying weapons that day.
“They also told us in the beginning that the barricades were where our ‘designated free speech area’ would be and that we could yell and scream as loud as we wanted, but by the time the show started the police had removed the barricades and were looking for every excuse to arrest us on ‘noise ordinance.’”
“Once the vendors left around 6pm, most police presence was gone, maybe 7-10 left. By the time 7:00 hit, about 30-40 police officers came marching in unison, forming a line surrounding the community center.”
“We were told before the event that we were allowed to look through the windows to make sure nothing sexual was happening. By the time the drag show happened, the cops told us we weren’t allowed to step foot on the concrete sidewalk or we’d be arrested immediately, so we were forced into the grass covered in dog shit, and threatened a few times with an arrest.”
“We were told by the host, ‘Lady Larry,’ that there were only going to be about five kids in the show: one five year old, and four 15-17 year olds. When the show started, there were about 20 kids ranging in all ages. One child around 8-10 years old put tip money in the shirt of one of the dancers, even though tips were not allowed to be taken. One of the audience members was flashing us her panties, there were teenagers flipping us off, rubbing their breasts at us and twerking. ‘Lady L’ never did get a background check done.”
According to Sara, another WTPAC member, “the city council member that stayed and watched the show LOVED IT.” She claims that it was Joseph Richardson, position 2, who attended.
Several counter protestors claimed that the Yelm Mayor, Joe DePinto, had ordered police to arrest anyone who created even the slightest disturbance. I was unable to find any public record to corroborate this. No arrests were reported that day, but many counter protesters said they were followed and harassed by police and threatened with arrest. Conversely, police did not seem very interested in the activities of the event itself, no matter how lewd and inappropriate for children those acts may have been.
This newfound dynamic of cooperation between left-wing activists and police may seem shocking to many. I predicted this would happen in the early days of the BLM riots. You see, it was never truly the intention of Democrats to rid society of police. Democrats love rules and restrictions far too much to surrender their law enforcement arm. What we saw with mandatory Covid-19 mRNA injections and endless BLM riots were purity tests. The leadership of the left told their followers that police must be abolished. Then they told us, “That’s not what we meant by abolish!” Then they eradicated the ranks of potential dissenters. Now we are left with a leftist law enforcement arm that they are all too eager to use with utmost prejudice against troublesome dissenters.
This phenomenon is not isolated to this one Pride event. Police had a large presence at the Snohomish Pride Parade the week prior. Likewise, the controversy around the upcoming Arlington Pride event on July 22nd centers around whether organizers or taxpayers should pay for the police presence. Arlington City Council caved to pressure from local LGBT activists and waived the $3,500 police security fees.
If there is anything to take away from these pride events, it’s that the left has abandoned its disdain for police and embraced them as their personal security. It’s a strange sight to see, after how passionately they reacted to the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, and others. Perhaps, at future pride events, we should ask them how they reconcile the BLM anti-cop platform with the new LGBT pro-cop cooperation. Just make sure to film it if you do.
Footage of the event can be seen here, courtesy of Bards Eye News.