Perversion on Parade at New York's Folsom Street East Festival

Immorality on display in New York City last Sunday in 'massive pagan pansexual street party'.

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - Since 1997, New York City has turned a blind eye toward anti-nudity and anti-lewdness laws that govern life in the Big Apple as well as the state during the Folsom Street East festival (FSE). This year's even took place on Sunday, June 21, which, ironically is also Father's Day.

Described on its website as "NYC's premiere sado/masochist-leather-fetish themed street festival," the event attracts approximately 10,000 visitors annually. They claim that this is the largest outdoor event of its kind east of the Mississippi.

The FSE press release stated that "the street will once again be lined with some 50 community groups and vendors that appeal to the LGBT and the kink communities and it will be filled with mobs of leatherclad musclehunks. A one-stop shop for leather gear, porn, and toys. And no throw pillow, magic mops, or tube socks - promise!"

The organization Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) obtained footage of this year's event, which included scenes of an "electro-torture" demonstration where a half-naked man was strapped to a cross while electric current shocks were sent through his body.

Begun by the Gay Male S/M Activists (GMSMA), Folsom Street East is a copy of the huge Folsom Street Festival held in Nancy Pelosi's district of San Francisco which draws as many as 100,000 people.

Exhibits included nude and partially nude individuals who were involved in demonstrations of various forms of perverse behaviors. AFTAH's anonymous source at FSE reported that "he saw hundreds of men walking around with their genitals and buttocks fully exposed."

Police were observed around the perimeter of the event, but no police presence or law enforcement regarding public lewdness was observed.

AFTAH's article on the event commented, "Ironically, proceeds from the 'Folsom East' event (attendees paid $10 to get in) go to the New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (AVP), according to the Folsom East website. In other words, 'consensual' sexual violence is celebrated and tolerated by the same movement that attempts to link mainstream, faith-based pro-family organizations to acts of violence targeting homosexuals.

Linda Harvey, President of Mission America, attended the larger 2008 event in San Francisco along with Peter LaBarbera, President of AFTAH. She described it as a "massive pagan pansexual street party, complete with instances of full nudity, homosexuality and crowds gathered around people being whipped for sado-masochistic pleasure."

In the 1960's, "how low can you go" was a phrase from a popular song about the Limbo dance. Last Sunday, that phrase aptly describes the immorality displayed on 28th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues in New York, New York.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and President of the Catholic Media Association. He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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