Joe My God is reporting from his trek this morning out to Brookyln's Crown Heights for the reported "Straight Pride Parade," where he found an empty intersection at the alleged 10 AM starting time. The event had been planned by Reggae artists from the "Taking Care of Our Own" production label. Why, you ask?:

It was organized in response to accusations made by gay activists, specifically Peter Tatchell, founder of the activist group OutRage!, that certain reggae songs, including Stapler’s “Hit Them Hard,” incite violence against gays. “The issue is not homophobia,” explains Tatchell. “It is incitement to murder gay people, which is a criminal offense.”

Gregory Larson, president of TCOOO Productions, views the parade and song quite differently, calling it “pro-family, not anti-gay.” Adds Larson, “It just talks about a man and his wife, but the gay community takes it as a hit against them. Maybe because they can’t have children, I don’t know.”

Riiiiiiiiiight. In any case, Joe made the trek to Flatbush at Church Avenue to witness the event first-hand, but discovered upon arriving that there was no parade to be found!:

As you can see, however, I found the corner of Flatbush and Church, the parade's supposed 10am starting point, completely deserted. Damn, and here I wanted a Straight Pride t-shirt.

I did see a good number of cars whizzing by that were festooned with flags from Jamaica and other Caribbean nations, but those were probably just folks getting ready for tomorrow's massive West Indian Day Parade. Just to make sure I hadn't missed the fun, I popped into a few shops to inquire if anybody had seen a parade this morning. The manager of Raquel Shoes told me, "I've been here since 8:30am. It's been totally quiet all morning."

Hah! Joe calls it a "laughable non-event," and he's exactly right.