NEW ORLEANS – The Southern Decadence Festival will bring thousands of people and millions of dollars to the city of New Orleans this weekend, but not everyone is here for fun.
Protestors claiming to be doing the work of God are also in the French Quarter, targeting everyone from Democrats to women.
This weekend is no different, but the target audience – homosexuals in town for the weekend's festivities – is.
"They've always been hateful and confrontational. It seems to them that everybody but them everybody is going to hell," said Leo Watermeier, a French Quarter resident.
Watermeier said he’s fed up with the noise and the hate that spews from the protestors' megaphones.
"They target Bourbon Street, they target the gay bars particularly,” Watermeier said.
And he said it's gotten worse in recent years.
"Their numbers have grown every year, they're becoming louder, there’s more bullhorns,” Watermeier said.
But this is not only a problem for the gay community. Bar owners here on Bourbon Street say their patrons, whether gay or straight, have been targets too.
Earl Bernhardt owns bars on Bourbon street, and he said he has seen it first hand.
"They're calling my customers foul names like drunkards and whores,” Bernhardt said. “We don't want to step on anyone's first amendment rights, but we don't want to be disrupted and have our businesses disrupted."
All of the residents and business owners say they're upset that police are doing so little to stop the noise and the hate speech that roll into town with these protestors.
"Some of the police will make them move along, some of them won’t do anything. I think they need some sort of policy across the board how to deal with these people," Bernhardt said.
Police say there's not much they can do.
“Bull horns are legal, but it's up to 85 decibels. So we'll have officers out there with decibel meters to track that,” said Captain Edwin Hosli, commander of the 8th District Police Station.
And as for the content of the protest, Hosli said, "It's everyone's constitutional right to freedom of speech. If they want to go up there and speak about whatever they feel strongly about, that's up to them."
And that is exactly what Ruben Israel and the other protestors say gives them as much right to be on this street as any other person or group.
"Why can't we be just as bold with what we're doing just like they’re doing?" Israel said.
Police say they typically have no problems on this weekend, but they are keeping the police presence in place in case things get out of hand.
