You’d think a spoken word emcee battle was going on today at Twin Cities Pride in beautiful Loring Park.  The shouting, laughter, and jeers near the horseshoe courts were like a comedy act gone terribly wry.

Preacher Brian Johnson of the Christian evangelical faith has been a mainstay of Twin Cities Pride for many years, handing out bibles and towing the line between speech and nuisance.  After being given the Minnesota cold shoulder (we’re good at that) for a booth, he got himself arrested in a heretical scene last year.  News media flailed themselves upon Johnson this year when Pride organizers sought to legally bar him from entering Loring Park grounds.  Though a public space under the Minneapolis Park & Rec Board, the board now allows private rentals of public spaces which often tests the definition of “the commons.” Johnson is from Hayward, Wis. over 100 miles from the Twin Cities in northern Wisconsin, a region renown for its dis-love of homosexuals in particular.

The self-described preacher prevailed on the ruling Friday and enter Loring Park with half a dozen media cameras in tow including KARE 11 (NBC) and KSTP.  They followed him and some of his own followers for hours in the bright sunlight as he settled in a spot on the west side of the pond.   After the mid-day report, Johnson’s group moved to a corner of the fenced horseshoe court and rose garden. 

For hours, Pride-goers received a taste at small town beat-boxing. A crowd of teenagers gathered to “battle” against the religious doctrine being shouted out by various men haphazardly. Soon a self-identified father joined in proclaiming “I’m gay and Jesus loves me” to which applause followed. A man in a red shirt responded from behind the fence with “Jesus saves… those who realize they are lawbreakers and criminals in front of a holy, holy righteous God, that’s what the Bible says.”

Tirades continued until a teenager bellowed into his giveaway horn that “if homosexuality is a sin then I think homosexuality is sin-sational” which elicited cheers and laughter from passerbys. Later a younger preacher in white stepped up on the fencing and damned the crowd for its “fornication” to which couples lined up to make out. A woman tossed her cup of water at the young man to which he thanked her aloud, proclaiming the “same thing happened to Jesus” possibly in reference to the Romans around 26 AD. On-duty MPD Sergeant Fred McCormick briefly spoke with the woman and resolved the situation.

Opposite from the ruckus, HRC organized a wall of high school students holding rainbow flags and signs that read “love” while they chanted “love is love.”

Nearby religious booths looked on with amused looks which included Wingspan Lutherans, Spirit of the Lakes UCC, United Methodist, and Progressive Baptists. They knew the “preachers” chose to stage near them for a reason. The Catholic Coalition for Church Reform was also present and when the younger preacher switched off, a man from the booth yelled out, “Send us the cute one back.” It would seem the Pride organizers responsible for Brian Johnson’s five minutes of media fame inadvertently translated the man into a new entertainment act for the festival.