Amid Threats of Violence and Protests North Carolina Town Stages Its First LGBT Pride Festival

Anti-Gay Bigots ‘Joke’ About Shooting Up Event on Facebook

The first LGBT Pride celebration in Morganton, North Carolina, a small town of about 17,000, drew more than 400 people on Saturday despite threats of violence against the event and its lead organizer. 

The threats included two men joking about shooting up Burke Pride on Facebook, as shown in these screen grabs: 

Facebook removed the post in response to a complaint, QNotes reports. However, the local sheriff didn’t seem too concerned about the threat. In fact, he told The News-Herald he wasn’t even aware of it, adding that “there is a lot of grey area when it comes to online threats,” the newspaper reported. 

But the Facebook post wasn’t the first threat the event received. 

Seth Loven, president of LGBT Burke and the lead organizer of the Pride celebration, told the News-Herald he’s been followed and had a note left on his vehicle saying, “You die.” 

During the celebration, anti-LGBT protesters gathered on a sidewalk adjacent to the park, screaming at Pride participants, waving Bibles and holding signs saying things like, “Stop the Hate Against God’s Laws” and “Repent: Turn to Jesus or Burn.”