Alex,
As you know I'm a pretty keen observer of the religious right, and I don't really see many of them "up in arms" about this. William Donohue is the only one talking about it, and it's not as if he's particularly influential these days (yet the news media loves to have him on the air). It seems like a media-manufactured controversy intended to perpetuate the stupid red state vs blue state dichotomy crap and waste our energies on meaningless culture wars.

The poster itself is just tired and corny--another faux-edgy take on a very played-out visual gag; its capacity for humor has long since been exhausted.

"...but this affair is rather telling when it comes to homophobia, Christian sexophobia, and cultural appropriation."

Wow - that's a lot of "phobias"! How about Christophobia on the part of this community. Here is the game that is being played:

You stick your thumb in a favorite target's eye, then use the target's outrage as evidence of their bigotry.

And no one is supposed to notice that the conscious and deliberate (this is an advertising campaign after all) selection of the target is itself evidence of bigotry.

Or this response to Andrews ( the "homocon" - you have as many short, pity, dismissive names for groups as an old-fashioned, colorful, Bull Connor-type bigot) challenge:

"even though I doubt many Americans would recognize much Muslim art from the late 15th century, and the Muslims don't allow for portraits of Muhammad because that could result in idolatry."

The purpose of this oh-so-daringly chosen "parody" was to trigger a reaction in the "...phobia" groups, claim victimization from the reaction, generate some buzz, and have the community congratulating itself on courageously "speaking truth to power blah blah blah" Pick a target group enemy in order to mobilize your base, a strategy quite common among bigots. But in this case all of this is just a minor league game. To really push the envelope, to really be daring, and provocative, next years fair should have a cartoon of Muhammed as an S/M ponyboy. But that's a game you dare not play.

Alex, all the people you mentioned are of the pundit-class. These are not really the people who make up populace of the actual religious right. CWA is not actually very influential or powerful--just noisy. Michelle Malkin employs perpetual outrage as her gimmick, but she's totally irrelevant to the religious right. And Sullivan and Crain aren't part of the religious right either--they're just playing into the same dumb culture wars junk (Sullivan in service of his islamophobia).

I place this in the long line of manufactured pseudo-controversies--analogous to Britney Spears' "sacreligious" appearance on Will & Grace.

Frankly, i think people sometimes insist on pissing off Christians for no good reason, just so they can prove how "edgy" and "radical" they are. Stupid stupid stupid.

NEWS FLASH: it's easy to offend Bill Donohue OMG SHOCKER!!!!

"For anything you said to make any sense, this would have to be an insult to Christianity. I argued that it's not. You haven't even tried to disprove me."

Ok, I'll take the bait :)

Let's consider the Fair organizers statement of this:
http://www.folsomstreetfair.com/fair-press.php?relNum=77

"Next year’s poster ad may take inspiration from American Gothic by Grant Wood or Edvard Munch’s The Scream or even The Sound of Music! I guess it wouldn’t be Folsom Street Fair without offending some extreme members of the global community, though."

An admission that they chose now, and will continue to choose posters that will give offense. The target is "extreme members of the global community." Hmmm - who might "extreme members of the global community" refer to. The Sound of Music Jihad? Da Vinci fanatics? Renaissance painting fanatics? Western Civilization fanatics? (getting warmer) Christian fanatics - yeah!!!!! Let's go for it it - this ought to draw some fire!

The conceit here is that the Fair exhibits a sort of brave edginess, that they are pathfinders in flushing out and confronting "global extremists." Next year's contest will be very interesting, because someone will likely submit an entry that will be sure to give offense to a different set of global extremists. Expect a different Fair poster selection process next year, orientated towards inclusion and respect that will eliminate such entries from consideration.

Alex in my opinion (and I admit no one really knows) the Fair organizers suspected a reaction would occur, and made a deliberate decision to proceed.

I think of myself as a mainstream Christian, and am not really offended by the poster. I'm worried about the escalating Balkanization of society, with people being drawn to extremes, and I fear this will escalate further. What does offend me is people taking pride in being offensive. Playing with fire is dangerous in a pluralistic society, because they are fragile things.

To risk a hypothetical question - would this be considered intentionally offensive?

September 25, 2008
FOLSOM STREET EVENTS™ LAUNCHES POSTER DESIGN FOR 25th ANNUAL FOLSOM STREET FAIR™
Poster image draws inspiration from the annual Islamic Hajj, in a poster entitled: Masjid al-Harem.

Folsom Street Events has released its latest poster design for the 25TH Annual Folsom Street Fair. This year, the official poster, drawn by renowned artist Theo van Gogh, uses well-known community members as players in a strikingly original interpretation of the annual, worldwide pilgrimage to Mecca. The poster is the second in a series that draws from well-known paintings, album covers, movie posters, or other iconic images. Community members celebrate exuberant sexuality by donning their S/M regalia, and dancing around not the Kaaba, but a 10 story phallus.

According to Andy Copper, Board President, “We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this poster, and we are looking forward to a particularly inspirational event season. There is no intention to be particularly pro-religion or anti-religion with this poster; the image is intended only to celebrate the sacred roots of raw sexuality. It is a distinctive representation of diversity with women and men, people of all colors and sexual orientations. Just as Mecca draws people of all races throughout the world, we hope people from all continents will come come celebrate with us!”

Folsom Street Events acknowledges that many of the people in the leather and fetish communities are spiritual and that this poster image is a way of expressing that side of the community’s interests and beliefs. This year, Folsom Street Fair is dedicated to “San Francisco Values,” previously used against the San Francisco community for its support of sexual diversity and now used by Folsom Street Events as a way to reclaim power by the fetish community.

Andy Copper, adds “We hope that people will enjoy the artistry for what it is – nothing more or less. Many people choose to speculate on deeper meanings. This is one artist’s imagining of a pilgrimage that is at one both sexual and sacred - all we did was adopt the iconography of Mecca and we have made it our own. The irony is that homosexuality has a long and wonderful history in Islam. In truth, we are going to produce a series of inspired poster images over the next few years. Next year’s poster ad may take inspiration from American Gothic by Grant Wood, the flag raising at Iwo Jima, or even Raphael's 'The School of Athens' - community members are already preparing for roles in that one!"

When asked about the murder of the poster artist, Theo van Gogh, and the worldwide rioting that has claimed dozens of lives, Copper said: "I guess it wouldn’t be Folsom Street Fair without offending some extreme members of the global community, though.”

It seems to me to be a blatant attempt to garner attention. If you really want to poke someone in the eye(figuratively), why not use images of Muhammed or Muslims? I would assume, that you and others that find mocking Christianity amusing, would not risk that venture, as you value your heads. It is easy to mock Christianity, because it is a belief that is not bent on revenge, while Islamists would strike at the very heart(literally)of those that would insult or mock them.

WOW the big bad Folsom street COWARDS pick on the christans again,these COWARDS pick on people who won't fight back,come on you COWARDS pick on ISLAM or crawl back in your dungeons and beat some puppies while you drink Miller beer.