Organizers behind the highly controversial “Straight Pride Parade” are claiming that they are victims of terrorism after they were sent envelopes filled with glitter, BBC News reported.
Members of Super Happy Fun America, the group behind the planned “Straight Pride Parade” in Boston this summer, alerted three fire departments, the FBI, and the bomb squad after discovering the deeply concerning letters.
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In addition to planning their heterosexuality-positive event, Super Happy Fun America also advocates for what they call “straight rights.”
The group’s president, John Hugo, vice-president Mark Sahady, and member Samson Racioppi, all received the “suspicious” letters in the mail this week.
“The envelope immediately struck me as different,” Racioppi told NBC News , “There was no return address and it was taped around the edges, as if they din’t want anything to fall out.”
“I pinched the bottom and felt this granular substance.”
Racioppi, pictured above, said he shook the letter and heard something rattling inside: “It wasn’t powder, it was bigger than powder, it felt more granular in nature, bigger than sand.”
After becoming alarmed by the unknown contents of his own letter, Racioppi alerted the other members of his group, at which point he found out that both Hugo and Sahady had received identical mail.
“We, of course, called the police,” Hugo said. “I mean, why would we open something like that?”
He added, “Even if it’s nothing in it, it’s still terrorism as far as I’m concerned because obviously it’s meant to intimidate us.”
Following their alert to authorities, bomb squads were sent to the Massachusetts towns of Woburn, Salisbury, and Malden. There were also three fire departments dispatched, as well as the FBI to investigate.
Hazmat teams shut down street traffic and kept neighbors indoors while they investigated the mail.
Upon examining the letters, they were determined to be of no threat to their recipients. As it turns out, each envelope contained brightly colored glitter, as well as handwritten letters with Bible passages.
The FBI have announced that the packages do not pose a threat to public safety, but the investigation is still ongoing.
“Glitter bombing” is an oft-used means of protest against those who oppose LGBT rights.
Several Republican Party politicians, including Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, have been the target of so-called “glitter bombs” for their anti-LGBT stance.
Although the packages were determined not to be of any threat, Hugo believes that justice still needs to be served.
“Even if it’s just baby powder,” he said, “I want to see this person prosecuted.”
Hugo, who describes himself as being pro-straight, not anti-gay, said he considers the letters a form of “domestic terrorism.”
Super Happy Fun America has condemned the people behind the glitter-filled letters.
In a blog post about the incident, the group also said that the so-called “domestic terrorists” will not deter them from their plans to carryout their “Straight Pride Parade.”
“Anti-fun and other heterophobes are dead set on suppressing the ability of straights to freely express themselves as a legitimate sexual orientation and proud members of the LGBTS (S is for Straight) Community.”
The “Straight Pride Parade” has been shrouded in heavy controversy since it was approved in Boston last month.
Scheduled to take place on August 31, it will be the city’s first parade of its kind. Despite its apparent anti-LGBT message, Super Happy Fun America claims they are “inclusive of all, including LGBTQ people,” and insist they have a “gay ambassador who challenges hereto-phobia” on their team.
The parade’s grand marshal will be Milo Yiannopoulos, who is described on the group’s website as having “spent his entire career advocating for the rights of America’s most brutally repressed identity – straight people.”
