Yesterday, North Idaho Pride Alliance (NIPA) held their summer event celebrating sexual degeneracy called “Pride in the Park”. This investigative report documents the high-profile vendors and individuals I saw and concludes with some of my takeaways.
Introduction
This year’s Pride in the Park was a scaled down version from last year’s event where cross-dressing men were doing ridiculous dances for children in the crowd and soliciting tips from them. The lawsuit against Summer Bushnell, and subsequent outrage from North Idaho’s conservatives seemed to rain a bit on NIPA’s parade this year, and it seemed like a deliberately toned-down event.
Besides the opening ceremonies that included a strange ritual where a white woman acknowledged Native Americans because they were using their land (what?), and a prayer conducted by a self-proclaimed pastor… the area near the stage was empty most of the time.
The real buzz of activity was around the vendors on the parkgrounds.
Vendors
Besides the usual vendors you’d expect like HREI and Kootenai Democrats there were a number of vendors that really took me by surprise.
Several publicly-funded entities like North Idaho College, Kootenai Health, Heritage Health, Fostering Idaho, and Planned Parenthood were there. These are perhaps the most egregious because these entities would not exist without the public’s tax dollars.
North Idaho College
NIC is an Idaho community college with an elected Trustee board. The official NIC logo was emblazoned on the table cover, and canopy. No clear signage whether this was an official North Idaho College group or student-led club.
Kootenai Health
The governing body of KH is comprised of elected Trustees. What’s the deal with the razzle dazzle rainbow sunglasses, free condoms, and information on how to get Morning After pills? What exactly is “inclusive healthcare”? Do they have “fanatical Constitution lover healthcare” because sign me up.
Heritage Health
HH CEO Mike Baker was next to HH’s clinic van during the duration of Pride in the Park. HH receives a significant amount of funding from Kootenai County, and various grants from taxpayer dollars.
Fostering Idaho
Fostering Idaho administers foster programs in Idaho, and receives grant money from the state.
Kootenai County Democrats
No comment needed.
Planned Parenthood
PP was front and center. Ironically enough, they were placed right next to Fostering Idaho which receives grants from the state to help administer Idaho’s foster programs.
Big Corp in Little CDA
It seems worthwhile to bring attention to a few business, and multinational corporations that felt the need to help us wake up to the wondrous realities of wokeism.
Numerica Credit Union
Numerica Credit Union was there with one of their vinyl-wrapped trucks, and a backdrop for people to take photos for social media (banking is totes lit fam). As a credit union, Numerica is owned by their members and serve the Spokane, North Idaho, Tri-Cities, and the Wenatchee Valley region.
Target
And ho-ho, Target was also there.
T-Mobile
Lastly, T-Mobile was also there. One guy was holding an Asian fan (uhh… like excuse me) with a t-shirt that said “Keepin’ it Rural”. I found that funny.
Notable Faces
Lots of the high-profile people that you would expect were there:
- Jeanette Laster
- Teresa Borrenpohl
- Sarah Garcia
- Nash Mahuron
- Alicia Abbott
- KC Democrat chairman Evan Koch
- Phil Ward, etc.
The people I was surprised to see were:
- Mike Gridley (former City Attorney for the City of Coeur d’Alene) stopped for several minutes to speak with several street preachers.
- Heritage Health’s CEO Mike Baker was spotted speaking with high-level organizers and individuals. He was seen sporting a few of the Baal stickers on his upper arm.
- County Commissioner Bruce Mattare and Sheriff Bob Norris were also spotted walking together and speaking with several high-profile people. KJ reached out to get a comment from them on why they decided to attend Pride in the Park. This is a very sensitive subject so rather than paraphrase their response I’ll just post it in full here:
- Sheriff Norris’ response: “1-for Situational Awareness and ensure a safe event for all users of the park. 2-To assess if county resources would be necessary to ensure a peaceful event.” (Note: Sheriff Norris was dressed in plain clothes).
- Commissioner Bruce Mattare’s response: “I wanted to see how the event was going and compare it to last year. The county spent a lot of money for available resources to be on standby last year for a private event. It appears it was uneventful and did not draw county resources since the drag show for kids was not included.”
Police Presence
There were at least 20 uniformed police officers that I observed. Some were situated around the perimeter of the gathering. Other officers were seen patrolling in groups of threes.
When the Coeur d’Alene City Council approves a large event like this, it comes at huge cost to taxpayers because the officers are diverted from their normal patrols and stations to provide security for Pride in the Park. This means that there would be an significant number of officers being paid overtime to make up for the lack of coverage in the rest of Coeur d’Alene.
The Out-of-State Crowd
I video recorded the license plates of cars in the parking lot next to CDA City Park. About 40% of the license plates were from out-of-state including Washington, Montana, and even far-flung places like Tennessee.
I’m abstaining from posting the video of this. It’s completely legal in Idaho to record video where people don’t have the presumption of privacy, but it just seems too intrusive for my taste.
Takeaways
Here’s my takeaways in 3 simple points:
- Gross. Disgusting.
- Wide cultural support but mostly bolstered by out-of-state people and interests.
- Disappointed at the counter-activism from local Christians.
First, it’s gross. I know I sound like a cromagnon that’s larping as a journalist for saying something glib like that. It doesn’t matter.
It’s gross.
But you might say, “You guys are a news organization! You can’t engage in moralizing speech!”
In our defense, we’ve stated our terms to the public very clearly. It’s hard-baked into our slogan: Christian Worldview. Unbiased Reporting. Every human being reasons using a fundamental system of values. KJ is just painfully obvious about ours so we don’t mislead readers, but even more, we hope to orient readers to our unique perspective before they even read an article.
It would be nice if this was en vogue, and generally practiced.
Case in point, you can look at the coverage of Pride in the Park by CDAPress. They’re the most dominant news organization here in North Idaho. By all accounts you might be led to think their reporting is totally free of prejudice, and bias.
Our hope is that most newsworthy events that occur in North Idaho won’t require any “moralizing speech” and the bare facts will be able to drive the entire story. Pride in the Park is unique in that I can’t do that.
Secondly, there’s lot of support for Pride in the Park. About 2.5K attendees worth of support (based on the numbers from CDAPress).
The only problem is that the loudest of the supporters are propped up with taxpayer dollars and/or entrenched in their power. The remainder of the supporters are comprised of national corporations that have made it their strategic goal to outdo themselves in their “wokeness”. I think their idea is that the price of their stock might inch upwards a bit (which it never does but everyone is entitled to seek out their own El Dorado I suppose).
While it’s concerning that there’s sizeable numbers of attendees that are actually residents of North Idaho, it’s not to the degree that conservatives should be more-than-normally alarmed. If I start seeing more “COEXIST” bumper stickers driving around I might revisit this.
This leads to the last takeaway.
Lastly, I’m disappointed at the lack of counter-activism from local Christians. There was a very small number of Christians there to preach, and share the truth to the people who were attending Pride in the Park. If Christians have our own El Dorado, it’s that we believe these problems will melt away on their own… it probably won’t.
At the turn of the 2010s, the talking point that gained massive currency for the homosexual cause was, “What they do in their bedroom is their business.” Even I fell for that Libertarian gambit.
Now in 2023, we’re…
- Watching documentaries titled, What is a Woman?
- Seeing 18-year olds providing testimony to state legislators about getting double-masectomies and testosterone hormones when they were children.
- Flipping through books in local libraries that depict oral sex, and other acts.
The battle has moved very quickly and war is raging on… yet most Christians have declared a one-sided armistice to lay down their arms.
For what reason?
Any thinking person will probably have the faint inkling that the next main attraction in this sexual degeneracy revolution will involve children. They’re correct. Mark my words: the normalization of sex with children is next.
Feedback
If you were there and want to share your thoughts, video/images, or send a Letter to the Editor please reach out.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Romans 1:18
And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Romans 1:27
Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Romans 1:32
