The small Catholic city of Mandeville, Louisiana, will be hosting its first-ever “pride” parade on June 1, and a group of men in the community is rising up to peacefully dissent. According to local farmer and father of five Ross McKnight, “[The pride parade] seems to be an offensive maneuver on a location known for its family-friendly environment, its plentiful church parishes, and its selection of schools.”
A group called “Queer Northshore” is orchestrating the event. The group was co-founded in 2022 by Jeremy JF Thompson, who, according to his public Facebook profile, appears to be a Los Angeles transplant to the area.
“While a display such as this would perhaps not be so surprising in New Orleans, Chicago, Austin, or Los Angeles, the objective here appears to be the infiltration of a community with traditional, Catholic values,” stated McKnight.
McKnight is the co-founder of La Nouvelle Vendée, a Catholic men’s group aimed at “Resist[ing] Secularism,” reclaiming Louisiana’s Acadian Catholic culture, and “Restor[ing] Christendom in Louisiana.”
La Nouvelle Vendée members plan to combat the “pride” infiltration of their community by standing, “shoulder to shoulder along the [parade route],” reads a description of the counter-protest. The men also intend to pray the Rosary as a public act of reparation in response to what McKnight describes as a “public offense against God.”
“We will not respond to antagonism, but suffer the lash as did the King of all mankind — with humility and fortitude,” continued the call to action. “In the eventuality that one of our men is under threat of deadly violence, we will respond appropriately, but otherwise we will stand stone-faced and immovable in the face of insults and indignities.”
The description also notes that the “Minimum dress code” includes a “Collared shirt, tucked in,” “Pants,” and “Ideally: A Vendée-type Sacred Heart patch on the left breast.”
Shortly before La Nouvelle Vendée’s demonstration, other local Catholics plan to make reparation for the “pride” parade by attending eucharistic adoration at Our Lady of the Lake, a local Catholic Church. After the demonstration, McKnight plans to host a potluck for everyone.
As “pride” events have become more ubiquitous and targeted at children, they have also become increasingly pushed on small, family-oriented cities and towns. La Nouvelle Vendée offers a template for how Christian communities across the country can peacefully protest.
McKnight’s primary advice for those who wish to emulate La Nouvelle Vendée’s demonstration is to “pray for courage.” McKnight admits that those who stand against the LGBT movement can expect to face intense backlash that may be damaging both personally and professionally. “Christ was willing to take on sin itself and be seen as a vile criminal, even,” said McKnight. “And so I think we all should be willing to be reviled for the sake of Christ.”
“You should take courage and comfort in that particular moment where you are hated by all,” added McKnight, because “you are walking that same path to Calvary.”
McKnight is no stranger to suffering for his faith. Last year, he almost lost his Foie Gras farm when New Orleans restaurants canceled their business with him after he made an Instagram post commemorating the Sacred Heart of Jesus and encouraging his followers to counter “pride” month or, as McKnight called it, the “attempted coup of the month of June.”
In the Catholic Church, June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a tradition originating from the 17th-century visions of Christ received by French nun St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. The LGBT movement’s hijacking of June is especially offensive to McKnight as a Louisiana Catholic of French descent.
“It is an honor to participate, through the suffering of our family, in the triumph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” McKnight wrote at the time. “‘If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you.’”
Since then, McKnight has not stopped fighting for a restoration of Christendom. “At the center of all of this is beauty,” McKnight said of La Nouvelle Vendée. “And that’s what we’re pursuing.”
The Louisianan men who make up La Nouvelle Vendée say their organization is inspired by the Holy Martyrs of the Vendée. Vendée is a western region in France where Catholics rose up in 1793 in opposition to the so-called French “republic” following the bloody French Revolution.
The new Republican French government launched a de-Christianization campaign following the revolution. The “god of Reason” was enthroned in the cathedral of Paris, religious holidays were replaced with secular ones, and Catholic Mass was forced to be said in secret until, eventually, Republican authorities began executing priests en masse.
As Sr. Elvira Garro explains in H.M. Magazine:
In the face of the Republican cannons, these poor people had only their staffs. In the face of guns, they had only their sickles! They had no military uniform, but they did have something which united them together: the emblem of the Sacred Heart embroidered in red on their chest, and on their caps, the initials of Jesus Christ the King.
A reported 200,000 men, women, and children were victims of the terror. Republican General Westermann, who was in charge of the assault, recounted drowning women in the river and roasting children in bread ovens.
With keen knowledge of their Acadian Catholic history and heritage, McKnight and his fellow La Nouvelle Vendée companions understand the stakes. Like the Holy Martyrs of the Vendée, they know some things are worth fighting for. As McKnight said at the time of his initial “canceling” last year, “If we don’t stand here, on the last assault of the family, then there’s no more ground left behind us.”
