Western Days Cancelled for 1st time in 30 years

Read the story on KTVB.com here.

Western Days has been a staple of celebration in Twin Falls for 30 years. During those 3 decades nothing of controversy ever marred the experience, until a few years ago. The Southern Idaho GLBT Community Center wanted to enter a float into the parade but were denied, Lisa Cuellar the organizer of the event said the float did not reflect Twin Falls' values and that gay people had no place in a community parade.

Now the event has been cancelled and Cuellar sites economic downturn as the primary reason. She contents that they have not heard back from major sponsors of the event about continuing their sponsorship. When I went to the parade the year it was denied I had the opportunity to speak with several members of the community. Among these were representatives from some of the major sponsors who said that they would seriously have to reconsider whether to continue sponsoring an event which so blatantly denies participation to segments of the community.

While economic downturn may be the reason that some sponsors are giving for suspending their contributions I imagine that they remember the bad taste that discrimination left in the mouths of so many people. They likely found this was a good time to save a few bucks and discontinue funding for an organization which treats people unfairly.

For Cuellar and others this should serve as a lesson: it may be convenient and easy to discriminate against people in good economic times but consequences of doing the easy thing versus the right right thing will always be brought to bear. Put simply: you made your bed now you get to lay in it.