Rightwing candidate tried to shame pup-play Pride “perverts.” It didn’t work.

Porky Grinds put on his pup mask, mitts, jean shorts, and rubber dog tail and climbed into the back of a truck to ride in the July 21st Portland Pride Parade with Portland Pups and Handlers (PDX PAH), a group for human-pet play enthusiasts — people who play the role of a dog, a house pet, or their human owner. About 200 people marched with the group, including furries wearing their mascot costume heads, leather men, and “littles” (people who role-play as infants).

“I was barking and having a great time with all of the families and people out there,” Grinds told LGBTQ Nation. “[The marchers and parade goers] were all just losing their minds to see themselves represented.”

Related:

A man screamed “MAGA” at Pride goers, but a lovely surprise happened next

The crowd tensed up, expecting an angry Trump supporter, but then a beautiful moment of togetherness occurred.

Later that evening, Brandon Farley—a self-described independent journalist and far-right Portland city council candidate with no prior government experience—posted a video on X of Grinds and his fellow marchers.

Stay connected to your community

Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

Farley’s video caption read, “Obese shirtless men wearing dog masks with dildos affixed to their a**es were prominently featured at the #Portland Gay Pride Parade.” Two hours later, Farley posted an image from the PDX-PAH website showing the faces and names of the group’s board members, which included Grinds.

“All these people are mentally ill,” Farley wrote. “Being sexual around children is what’s making them happy. I don’t give a s**t about their fulfillment. These people are perverts who fetishize dogs, the worst animal on Earth.”

Farley posted other videos from the parade on X, including one of an LGBTQ+-affirming church in the parade. He wrote, “Religious organizations in #Portland love to attach themselves to the Gay Pride movement, despite what it says in the Holy Bible about homosexuality being a sin.”

Oregon’s lesbian Gov. Tina Kotek (D) posted photos of the parade and wrote, “Portland Pride—you just get better and better each year.”

Farley commented, “I don’t care that you like to munch carpet. Just stop rubbing it in everyone’s faces.”

A friend told Grinds about Farley’s posts. When Grinds watched the video, he noticed that Farley spent most of his time focused on him. He told LGBTQ Nation that he wasn’t wearing a dildo and neither were any of the marchers in his group.

Quickly, the board members of PDX-PAH began discussing Farley’s post in a group chat.

“[Our] people were like, ‘Wow, really?'” Grinds said. “And then there was immediate concern that someone could be identified and have their personal life ruined. We messaged back and forth—both in the board chat and offline—trying to make sure that everybody was happy with where they were and with the amount of risk that they were in.”

Most board members weren’t too concerned because they had used their pseudonymous pup names or covered their faces in the images on the PDX-PAH website. Others worried that local Proud Boys or other anti-LGBTQ+ activists could hunt down and add their names to a target list.

“There was concern,” Grinds says, “but it was more making sure that everybody was safe than it was like, you know, ‘Everybody hit the ground.’ You know, we’re not running scared from this guy.”

Pride parade haters are nothing new. For decades, they’ve protested events, holding picket signs about queers burning in hell. Social media and the rise of the far-right, however, have made “sneak videographers” like Farley more common. They troll the events, trying to capture images of adults acting in ways that could be interpreted as sexual around kids or saying controversial things. These have coincided with Republican claims that LGBTQ+ people and their allies are “groomers” looking to “sexualize” kids.

This rhetoric turns into real-world violence. This year, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the FBI all issued warnings about possible anti-LGBTQ+ violence during Pride events. A 2022 report found that anti-LGBTQ+ mobilization had more than quadrupled from 2020 to 2021 and worsened again in 2022. A separate 2023 report found thrice as many incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ extremism and hate as in the previous year. Nearly half were perpetrated by members of groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Front.

Farley is cut from this same cloth. He has previously made posts on X against transgender people and drag performers. His stated goals as a city council candidate are to “Make Portland Great Again” and “combat far-left lunacy in gov.”

Public Safety Alert: A flyer was posted in NW #Portland advertising an *All Ages* "pop-up drag takeover" which includes an adolescent boy in drag. pic.twitter.com/iZ1HQwvURJ

— Brandon Farley (@TheRealFarley) July 13, 2024

He also ran for city council in 2022 but withdrew, citing mental health reasons.

Grinds and his fellow board members aren’t discouraged by Farley’s actions, and they see nothing wrong with their group. For one, their group only allows members above the age of 21. Second, the group and its gatherings aren’t inherently sexual. Last, they see pup play, furrydom, and littles as innocent and imaginative forms of pretend that have been a part of countless cultures throughout history.

“Kids do this kind of thing every single day at every elementary school in the nation, right?” he told LGBTQ Nation. “They like to pretend. They like to engage. They like to get into a space where they’re pretending to be part of a family, or a pet from a family, or younger than they actually are. Kids do this kind of thing, and also, like, be perfectly honest, adults do this kind of thing. Actors do this kind of thing, and it’s public. Like the dog in the Peter Pan play has always been played by like an adult. “

“It’s just one of those things that kids get intrinsically and when they turn into teenagers and become obsessed with, like, fitting in and not making themselves separate, being part of the group, that that’s when they like lose that [impulse]. At least some of them do,” he adds.

For Grinds, who is PDX-PAH’s events coordinator, pup play has presented an opportunity for him and others to be more playful and publicly outgoing than they might otherwise be.

“It’s so much about, like, love and interacting and connecting with people in a way that’s maybe, I mean, it’s definitely nonstandard. But like, we live in a world where guys can’t get hugged, and nobody just praises you for no reason. But as soon as you’re on all fours, you’re a good boy no matter what you do. And it’s special. It’s amazing. It’s a great way to connect with people. And it’s the fastest growing kink for a reason, because people relate to it. They connect.”

Don't forget to share: