Even Idaho bar owner Mark Fitzpatrick was surprised by the strong reaction to his Heterosexual Awesomeness Month promo in response to Pride Month.
"I was thinking of a way that we could celebrate the other side of sexuality, heterosexuality, the way God designed it. And that's kind of where I'm at with people that support us and are like-minded. So we decided to do Heterosexual Awesomeness Month and then launched it and boy, oh boy, did it take off," Fitzpatrick told Fox News Digital.
Fitzpatrick’s bar, the Old State Saloon, announced ahead of June that it would be kicking off its first salute to heterosexuality with discounts and free beer for heterosexual men, women and couples throughout the month.
Though he acknowledged receiving "crass" and "rude" messages online and phone calls, Fitzpatrick said, for the most part, the public reaction has been "overwhelmingly positive."
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"We've had a whole bunch of people come in, in person into our saloon. We've had people driving way out of their way. We had a couple come in, they drove 400 miles out of their way on their trip across the country yesterday...and other people have said they're going to fly in from out of state. Other people said next time they're in the state, they're going to stop by and support us," Fitzpatrick said.
Since the bar announced the event, Old State Saloon has offered Heterosexual Awesomeness merchandise and reported its biggest Monday sales this past week.
Fitzpatrick remarked that the idea was "honestly pretty last minute" as simple pushback against the nationwide promotion for LGBTQ Pride Month.
"I'm Christian. I follow what the Bible says. I love people. I love all types of people and everything. But when you love people, it doesn't mean that you have to necessarily get behind everything they decide to do. And especially with the way things have been going the last few years, as far as how extreme it gets in June," Fitzpatrick said.
He added, "I'm not just going to sit there and do nothing anymore. I'm going to be involved. I'm going to be out there. I'm going to be rallying people to help do the right thing, celebrate godly things. And I think the rest of the country should do that."
Fitzpatrick also encouraged other businesses to host their own "Heterosexual Awareness Month" following his success.
"I think, from what I'm experiencing with people's response, is that the country is ready to kind of stand up and say, ‘hey, what about this? And this is a good thing to celebrate, and let's do that,’" he commented.
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Fitzpatrick shared how he thinks a lot of companies don't want to weigh in on the issue and open themselves up to the potential controversy and blowback. He said he was at a point in his life that he's "done being quiet about things."
"I want the truth," he said. "I know there's a lot of deception out there in the world. I want the truth to come out on a lot of things, and I just want glorify God in everything that I do."
