A group of Christians are demanding an apology from Democratic Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell after he called their event — which far-left rioters had disrupted — an “extreme right-wing rally.”
Evangelicals supporting Mayday USA plan to rally Tuesday outside Seattle’s City Hall following Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Saturday statement on that day’s altercation. Harrell called the group’s “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” event in Cal Anderson Park an “extreme right-wing rally,” and claimed in his statement that the event was held specifically to “provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values, in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent LGBTTQ+ neighborhood.”
Mayday USA is a Christian pro-life group that supports the biological reality of sex. The group’s event featured preaching from Matt Shea of “On Fire Ministries.”
Organizations such as the Radical Women Seattle group arrived to counter-protest the event, calling Mayday’s mission “fascist family values,” and using the slogan “Keep Your Bibles Off Our Bodies.” Other organizations who protested the event include the Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity and Puget Sound Mobilization for Reproductive Justice, according to Fox13.
Freedom Socialist Party Leader Doreen McGrath said that “attacks of this kind need to be met with protest every time,” the network reported.
Amid the fallout, Seattle police arrested 23 protestors on charges of assault and obstruction, according to KOMO News.
Jenny Donnelley, a Mayday USA organizer, said, “To say that we attacked people or we attacked somebody’s viewpoint or values is completely bogus.”
The organization originally requested that their event be held at a different park, less important to Seattle’s LGBT community. According to McGrath, “The parks department denied them a permit at another park and put them here, and I want to know what city official was responsible for that.”
Russell Johnson, the lead pastor behind Tuesday’s rally and present at Saturday’s protest, similarly blames the city for the escalation of the event, saying, “We had attempted to do the event at another place and they rejected that and directed us to Cal Anderson.” Johnson expects hundreds of people to show up on Tuesday outside City Hall and demand an apology from the mayor, according to KOMO News.
Mayday USA’s new event, “Rattle in Seattle,” is scheduled to take place at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
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