California official faces backlash after calling for ‘straight pride month’
The vice mayor of Dixon, California, is facing calls to step down after he proclaimed July as “Straight Pride American Month.”
Ted Hickman declared July as a month to celebrate heterosexuals in a bizarre article on his personal blog, which was also published in local paper Independent Voice.
His piece prompted recall efforts – a procedure when elected officials can be removed from office following a vote – with the creation of a “Recall Ted Hickman” Facebook page, which currently has more than 700 ‘likes’.
Hickman has faced calls to step down in response to his article (QuentenVoyce/Twitter)
Hickman wrote in his article: “Now before anyone gets their pantyhose in a knot, this is not really legallyanti anything; instead it’s pro-family; and proud to be a straight American, and me expressing a private opinion… So there!”
The Californian official added: “Now hundreds of millions of the rest of us can celebrate our month, peaking on July 4, as healthy, heterosexual, fairly monogamous, keep our kinky stuff to ourselves, Americans… We do it with our parades in every state and county in this country with families celebrating together.”
He also described Pride month as “LGBTQF-WTF month,” adding that it was an event that saw “tens of thousands of folks dancing and prancing all over American celebrating the fact they are different than most of the rest of us and showing their “pride” in being so.”
Campaigners are planning a protest at Dixon City Council’s next meeting on July 10, calling for Hickman to stand down.
The Facebook group ‘Recall Ted Hickman’ is urging mayor of Dixon Thom Bogue to respond to Hickman’s article with a statement.
Campaigners are calling for Ted Hickman to step down following his article (Recall Ted Hickman, Vice Mayor of Dixon, CA/Facebook)
Later in his article, Hickman said: “We honor our country and our veterans who have made all of this possible (including for the tinker bells) and we can do it with actual real pride, not some put on show just to help our inferior complex “show we are different” type of crap. We ARE different from them…We work, have families, (and babies we make) enjoy and love the company (and marriage) of the opposite sex and don’t flaunt our differences dressing up like faries and prancing by the thousands in a parade in nearby San Francisco to be televised all over the world.”
The vice mayor defended his article in an interview with The Sacramento Bee, telling the local paper: “It was tongue-in-cheek and had nothing to do with my elected position [and that] thin-skinned people took offense.”
