Jaunted

Tags: Provincetown / Tourism Boards / Hot Dog Incident / → All Tags

Provincetown Tourism Official Explains Hot Dog Incident

Remember the whole Ptown hot dog incident, first reported by the Boston Globe late last week? Tensions were running high there over an anti-gay marriage petition that was passing through town. Well, as is always the case there are at least two sides to every story. Luckily for us, Jaunted was granted unfettered access to Bill Schneider, Director of the Provincetown Tourism Office, who gave us his take on the aforementioned Hot Dog Incident incident during a phone call with Jaunted editors yesterday.

According to Schneider, the issue was one of timing more than anything else. A petition to get anti-gay marriage legislation on the ballot in Massachusetts circulated through the local Catholic Church, and was signed by some residents.

Provincetown is small enough that locals know each other quite well, and when Hines and Cabral spotted each other, they got into a heated discussion on the topic, a crowd formed. "This wouldn't have been an issue if we weren't in the height of the season," Schneider explained. The big crowd made the back-and-forth a police issue; without the crowd, it would have been one of many the many debates that take place quite frequently in the town.

As for the issues regarding slurs between gays and straights, Schneider says that the problems come from out-of-towners.

Our guess? A bunch of hooligans from Southie who hopped the fast boat to Ptown. Just kidding, Southie-folk! please don't slash our tires!

Since the incident, Ptown has redoubled their efforts to promote tolerance by holding a "No Place for Hate" meeting last week, but they "can't control all of the people from many different backgrounds coming together," nor put a ban on free speech to solve the problem. The town's population swells by as much as 70,000 on peak weekends, so that's the way it goes, for now.

Have something you want to add to all this? Let us know in comments or just email us.

[Image via earthdog/Flickr]

Related Stories:
·   Provincetown Breeder's Cup [Jaunted]
·   Intolerance in Ptown [Boston Globe]