Seattle Gay Pride Protesters Attack Street Preachers

Seattle Gay Pride protesters attacked a group of street preachers at Pride Fest in a YouTube video uploaded on July 1.

The video runs close to six minutes in length, and the violent portion begins at about the 2:35 mark after which officers from the Seattle Police Department arrive on the scene and question the parties involved.

The YouTube poster, who also filmed the footage, goes by the handle “Rogue Reflections” and shared his thoughts on the scene. “While photographing this event, I witnessed a growing anger from some of the crowd, towards the preachers. All of a sudden a few members in the crowd attacked the street preachers. I switched to video to document the incident.”

The poster continued: “I DO NOT condone what the attackers did. While I don’t agree with these preachers, it is their Constitutional right to be in public and preach. I think it is tragic that some of the people who justifiably want tolerance in their life, deny that same tolerance to others. I commend the responding Seattle PD Officers for the professional way they handled this situation. The main aggressor was arrested.”

When the video begins, a female protester and a 36-year-old male protester, later identified as Jason Queree, are verbally assaulting the street preachers, one of whom is holding a sign that reads, “Repent or else.” Lots of profanity in the video, so definitely NSFW if you want to give it a look below.

At one point, a 22-year-old male attempts to wrest the sign from the street preacher’s hands, and the two go to the ground. At this moment, it’s allegedly Queree, who runs up from behind and attacks the preacher with a series of punches. Queree was later arrested, his 29th time since 1995, KOMO News noted.

Here’s another look at the video. (Again, NSFW.)

Tensions have certainly been high since the US Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act last month, and the Seattle gay pride protesters who attacked the street preachers are not alone in the disturbing trend towards violence.

Two days ago, two men assaulted a LGBT teen on a New York subway following a pride event.

Do you think violence, such as the Seattle gay pride protesters attacking the street preachers, will continue in the wake of the DOMA ruling?