Sen. Scott Brown's Successor Walks in Pride March

Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.

The successor to Massacusetts state Sen. Scott Brown has infuriated anti-gay groups by marching in the Boston Pride parade.

"Newly elected State Senator Richard Ross has repaid his pro-family campaign supporters by proudly marching in the obscene Boston Gay Pride Parade," fumed fringe right organization , an anti-gay group that opposes marriage equality but considers itself to be "pro-family."

The group posted the story June 25 at its website under the sub-headline, "Conservative movement deserves blame for slide to dark side."

The posting incluided photos that purported to show state Sen. Ross marching in the parade. "Strangely, despite numerous phone calls over the past several days Sen. Ross's office refuses to confirm or deny that he was at the event," text at the site read, before going on to urge readers to call the senator's office at 617-722-1555.

The site took advantage of the opportunity to post other pictures from the Pride event as well, including one of a handsome, muscular man clad in festive beads and wearing a Biblical figleaf-style thong. The accompanying text said that Pride participants were "publicly involved with sado-machosism, bondage, transgenderism, cross-dressing, and other weird, dysfunctional, vulgar, and perverse behaviors, as well as advocates of polyamory and paganism."

The article noted that Ross had replaced Brown in the state's House of Representatives when Brown became a state senator in 2004, before repeating the pattern earlier this year, upon Brown's election to fill the vacancy in the U.S. Senate following the death of Ted Kennedy. The article recounted some of Ross' voting record, attributing his reversal on putting marriage rights for gay and lesbian families up to a popular vote in 2007 to "homosexual activists" having "got to him." (In his own words, Ross told the Associated Press that his reversal was "the right thing" to do, the article noted.)

"As a result," the MassResistance posting chafed, "the Marriage Amendment vote narrowly lost and the homosexual movement had a big victory. But instead of any retribution, Massachusetts 'pro-family' groups actively supported Ross in his recent state senate election, calling him 'pro-life.' "

The posting continued, "Marching in the hideous 'gay pride' parade? No problem. Ross, like other Republicans, has no personal interest in stopping the degradation of society." Added the posting, "On our side, instead of wanting retribution we act grateful that they're not worse. That's NOT how the Left does things."

State Sen. Ross is not the only one whose pro-family views have seemingly grown to include gay and lesbian families. Sen. Brown, also, appears to have embraced his gay and lesbian constituents, telling Barbara Walters in an interview following his election to the U.S. Senate, "On the marriage issue, it's settled here in Massachusetts."

Fringe-right groups typically work to defeat moderate Republicans as well as Democrats, dismissing moderate GOP politicians as RINOs, or "Republicans in Name Only." Voters have shown little interest in toeing a right-wing line on social issues in recent elections, which have instead indicated a concern with fiscal issues.


by Kilian Melloy , EDGE Staff Reporter

Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.

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