A “Heterosexual Awesomeness” Festival Flopped — Then A Queer Singer Stole The Show
“This ain’t your limp-wristed woke fest,” the organisers of a Boise, Idaho festival promised. Instead, they offered a “full-on celebration of family values with guts.” The only problem? Almost nobody came to the party, and its most memorable moment was both woke and gutsy.
The “Heterosexual Awesomeness” festival managed to attract only a few dozen people to its sad gathering of food trucks and “hard-hitting talks”. The event, organised by a local bar owner, promised a big show. Instead, attendees got a lesson in just how fragile that “awesomeness” really is when confronted by a single, clever musician.
A rainbow note in a sea of beige
The day’s most memorable moment came from an unexpected source. Musician Daniel Hamrick was welcomed to the stage, looking like just another performer. He then removed his button-up shirt to reveal a “Keep Canyon County Queer” T-shirt and a jacket decorated with a rainbow heart. The mood shifted instantly.
Hamrick began to perform his song, Boy, with lyrics that told the story of a young trans boy struggling against his family’s expectations. “They put him in dresses to keep him in line, they say ‘It’s a phase’ and ‘It’s all in his mind’,” Hamrick sang. “It’s not just aesthetics, it’s down to his heart. They’re breaking his will and he’s breaking apart.”
As he continued, the festival’s livestream was abruptly cut. The organiser, Mark Fitzpatrick, rushed the stage, grabbed the microphone from Hamrick, and a scuffle followed. “He sang a song with lyrics that go against our values,” Fitzpatrick later said, adding that the “Pride community” are “liars and deceivers.”
When the quiet part gets loud
Just in case the event’s homophobic undercurrent was too subtle for anyone, another speaker made the bigotry crystal clear. Self-described American Nationalist David J. Reilly took the stage to praise Boise as a nice place to live, noting, “There aren’t any Black people here.” Are we really surprised? This brand of homophobia often walks hand in hand with racism.
These moments expose what events like this are truly about. They are not celebrations of heterosexuality, which faces no systemic discrimination. They are rallies for resentment.
This isn’t a new script
The United States has a short, sad history of these events. In 2019, a Boston “straight pride” rally, featuring alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos, drew only a couple of hundred people who were vastly outnumbered by counter-protesters. Another in California attracted just 20 attendees.
Perhaps the most telling example was in 2015, when a man in Seattle organised a Straight Pride parade and was the only person to march. He blamed a “gay terror squad” for scaring everyone else away.
Back in Boise, one man with a guitar and a powerful song did more to show what true strength looks like than an entire festival dedicated to complaining about “the woke advance”.
