Brigham Young University — a private religious school owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — hosted a “Provo Pride” celebration on April 11th where vendors sold a painting of Donald Trump’s severed head on a platter for $150, decorative items styled to look like Molotov cocktails were on display, and children — actual children — took turns bashing a piñata made to look like Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee.
Just your average family-friendly Saturday at a church school. Nothing to see here. Certainly nothing the FBI would be interested in if the roles were reversed.
Let’s walk through this slowly because every single detail makes it worse.
The event was organized by the Cougar Pride Center, an independent LGBT resource center that set up shop near BYU’s campus back in 2021. Their stated mission is to “empower queer individuals” and “celebrate progress.” Apparently, “progress” now includes letting seven-year-olds beat the stuffing out of an effigy of a sitting United States senator while a decapitated president stares at them from a canvas ten feet away.
Progress!
Photos from the event show the painting clearly — Trump’s head, severed, sitting on a platter like something out of a horror movie. Price tag: $150. Right there on a vendor table in broad daylight, next to what appear to be decorative Molotov cocktails. At a family event. At a university named after a church prophet. On a campus that still has an honor code about wearing shorts above the knee.
But sure, a severed presidential head? That’s fine. That’s art.
Then there’s the piñata. A piñata fashioned to look like Senator Mike Lee — one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate and, not coincidentally, a Latter-day Saint representing the state of Utah. Kids lined up to swing at it. There were photos of a baby in a stroller parked near the vendor tables while all of this was happening. Multiple young children participated.
We’re teaching children that political violence is a party game now. Fantastic.
One of the performers at the event was a drag performer named Colette Coins, who describes herself as an “argumentative antithetical dreamgirl.” So we’ve got drag performances, severed head art, fake Molotov cocktails, and child-friendly senator-bashing — all on the campus of one of the most well-known religious universities in the country.
Now imagine — just imagine — if this happened at Liberty University. Imagine if a conservative event at a Christian college featured a painting of Barack Obama’s severed head and let kids bash a piñata of Chuck Schumer. CNN would run it as breaking news for nine straight days. The FBI would open an investigation before the candy hit the ground. Every blue-check journalist in America would write a think piece about “stochastic terrorism” and “the dangerous rise of right-wing political violence.”
But when it’s Trump’s head on a platter and a Republican senator getting beaten by children at a church school? Silence. Crickets. Just another Saturday celebrating “progress.”
This is the same left that lectured us for five years about “violent rhetoric.” The same people who said a red hat was a symbol of hate. The same crowd that insisted parents at school board meetings were “domestic terrorists.” They put a painting of a severed head at a family event and handed children sticks to beat an effigy of an elected official, and somehow we’re still the threat to democracy.
The double standard isn’t even a double standard anymore. It’s just the standard. One set of rules for them, a completely different set for us. They get to fantasize about decapitating a president at a church university picnic, and we get investigated by the DOJ for posting memes.
BYU, to its credit, is a private institution and can allow or disallow whatever it wants on its campus. But the question isn’t whether they can — it’s whether they should. And whether the LDS Church, which owns the university and preaches about civility and respect for institutions, is comfortable having its campus associated with severed head paintings and children beating political effigies.
Because the rest of us aren’t comfortable with it.
We’re watching a culture that has completely lost its mind — a culture where “love is love” apparently includes teaching kindergartners to take a swing at a Republican senator, where “tolerance” means displaying the severed head of the president of the United States like it’s a centerpiece at a bake sale.
And they still have the nerve to call us the extremists.