Brad Pitt refused to endorse the heterosexual rights march. The event ended in a fiasco
Proud heterosexuals
First of all, anyone can be proud of their sexual orientation or gender identity. However, pride marches, even from a historical perspective, have a certain emancipatory and activist overlap, their purpose is to point out the existence of a minority, and not infrequently the aim is to draw attention to its inequality. In this respect, then, the organisation of a heterosexual march seems rather pointless, if only because heterosexuals are certainly not specifically oppressed. Of course, no one can forbid them to march, but as practice has shown, there is not really that much interest in hetero marching in the population...
According to the organisers, around 2 000 people were expected to attend the hetero march in Boston, USA. And although the "turnout" almost reached that figure in the end, it was certainly not the proud heterosexuals, but the gay and lesbian protesters. It was rather ironic that although the far-right organization Super Happy Fun America, which initiated the Pride, was attracted to the hetero-march, those who joined the march were instead proclaiming to the world, for example, their support for Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election.
Debacle in practice
While classic pride marches usually enjoy the support of many celebrities as well as businesses - they not infrequently join the parade as well - "straight pride" also hit quite hard in this regard. Although the organizers first used Brad Pitt's name to promote the event and also cited support from Netflix, TripAdvisor, Amazon, Facebook, etc. in promotional materials, they all unanimously pulled their hands off the event. Moreover, as it turned out, the companies had no idea that they were associated with the event and subsequently refused any support.
It was Brad Pitt who was chosen by the organization as its "mascot" - but as soon as the actor found out, he called on the organization through a spokesman to remove his name from the promotional materials immediately. It was Avengers star Chris Evans who left no stone unturned on Twitter, describing the event as a march of people who are desperately trying to bury their thoughts on homosexuality by armouring themselves with homophobia, and who simply cannot handle their emotions.
Next year?
Although less than a hundred people attended the event, compared to the announced number of heterosexual representatives, the organizers are definitely not giving up on the idea of another hetero-pride. One of them, John Hugo, said afterwards during his speech (which was, of course, largely drowned out by the many hundreds of protesters from the LGBT community) that he was definitely not anti-gay, but opposed to LGBTQ-inclusive education and encouraging children to be LGBT themselves.
Other speakers said the event could actually be repeated, probably around Christmas time. And that is a time of mutual love, understanding and togetherness, so maybe more straight people who love their fellow man of the opposite sex exclusively will show up...
