Nothing says “Happy Pride!” quite like drag queens, disco remixes, and… a man trying to crash the party with a loaded handgun.
RELATED: Richard Grenell Says Pride Has Gotten Too Sexual
Yep. That actually happened.
Saturday night’s Stonewall Pride Festival was in full sparkle mode when one man — 31-year-old Michael Monheit — decided to enter stage left with a Glock 9 mm clipped to his waistband and two fully loaded magazines. (Someone tell him that’s not what we meant by being “fully loaded.”)
RELATED: Visibility Isn’t the Villain: What GB News Gets Wrong About Pride
According to police, Monheit walked through the east security checkpoint around 8 p.m., set off the metal detector (not shocking — guns tend to do that), and casually ignored security officers when they told him to stop. Bold of him, but not in the fun, “Yas queen!” way.
Thankfully, Wilton Manors wasn’t playing around this year. For the first time ever, festival organizers had metal detectors in place — and thank Cher they did. Officers quickly detained Monheit and found the weapon, which, spoiler alert, is very not on-theme for Pride.
Oh, and about that concealed weapons permit? He used to have one, but it was revoked after he was Baker Acted — Florida’s way of saying, “Maybe no guns for now.”
“Law enforcement continues to investigate this incident to learn about Monheit’s motive and intentions, which (are) unknown at this time,” the Wilton Manors Police Department said in a statement.
Monheit is facing charges of armed trespassing and unlawful carry of a concealed weapon. As of Monday, he was no longer in the Broward Sheriff’s Office jail records — which is probably for the best, considering how hot it was out. Jail OR Pride in this humidity? No thanks.
Still, while this could’ve turned into a terrifying moment, it didn’t — thanks to solid planning, quick action, and a whole lot of queer resilience. The music didn’t stop, the heels stayed high, and the glitter kept flying.
So yes, someone really tried to bring a gun to Pride. But the only thing they managed to shoot was their shot… and missed it completely.
Moral of the story? Don’t bring a Glock to a glitter fight. You’ll lose every time.
Source: Local10
Taking jokes aside, we also need to learn, especially we see millions march for No Kings day, that MAGAs are becoming more and more desperate to show Liberals are the violent ones, the one that causes chaos.
There have been violent people since even before the first Orange Jesus administration (remember that person who drove a car into a crowd in 2017, the Stable Genius ‘very fine people on both sides moment?’), you can trace these types of incidents to the first Obama election and even before that. That said, I do agree that people need to, sadly, be aware and alert. Unfortunately, you can’t do something like a metal detector at a protest march, you can only have people in the crowd being alert and observant, which people used to do in the ACT-UP days, designate specific people to be aware of and prepared for that, no idea what modern protestors do now.
Also, sadly, something like a metal protector wasn’t going to help those people in Vegas who were shot from above, from a hotel tower up above an open-air celebration site, and that was not even an LGBT or progressive event, just some sick fuck with the need to use a gun.