Pink & Armed
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

(Detroit, Michigan)  When the first chapter of Pink Pistols was formed the idea of gays toting guns was greeted by the LGBT community with derision.  Gay voters had always been seen is liberal and anti-gun.

But, today with 37 chapters in the United States and at least 5,000 members the Pink Pistols are part of a growing diversity within gay communities.  

The newest chapter of Pink Pistols is forming in suburban Detroit.    

"I'm politically incorrect, totally," organizer Albert Lowe tells the Detroit Free Press. Lowe says the group will not only attract hobby target shooters but also help build a broader, stronger gun-rights lobby.

Lowe, 47, who says he has a permit to carry concealed weapons, says he also supports loosening Michigan's gun laws.

"There are a lot of people in the lifestyle who are interested in firearms," Lowe told the paper. "And there are some of the more conservative gun groups around who are not friendly toward the gay lifestyle. I've run across a few people who didn't like me because of my viewpoints and such."

But, the biggest gun group in the state is welcoming the Pink Pistols.

"The more the merrier, in that battle," said Chuck Perricone, executive director of the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners. "As long as they're supportive of the underlying issue, which is self-defense, we welcome their support."

The nation Pink Pistols' Web site  says "Armed gays don't get bashed" and "Pick on someone your own caliber."

"When the queer community can defend themselves, they're no longer going to be perceived as an easy target," says Doug Krick, the founder of the first Pink Pistols, in Boston.

But, not everyone in the LGBT community shares his view.  Jeffrey Montgomery, executive director the Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based gay rights group. calls Krick's assumption "dangerous". 

"Like many minority communities who are routinely targeted and highly at risk of being victims of violence, ours would be a community I would hope that would lead the discussion and debate in favor of gun control," Montgomery said. "I firmly believe the presence of guns in confrontations does not diffuse those in any way, and does not make anyone safer."

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