Tower Theatre marquee mourns Rush Limbaugh, sparking calls for demonstrations against sale

A sign posted on the Tower Theatre marquee Thursday further alarmed those opposing the historic venue’s sale to Adventure Church and renewed the call for continued demonstrations outside the Fresno landmark.

The Save the Tower Theatre Demonstration Committee says it will demonstrate at the corner of Olive and Wishon avenues from 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday. According to a statement from the group, the event will feature music performances from Blake Jones and Roger Perry along with the distribution of food and supplies to homeless people in the area.

Community members have held similar protests in front of the theater for the last six week.s

Organizers believe the pro-Limbaugh message will galvanize support for their weekly demonstrations against the rezoning of the theater, as some believe the message confirmed the church’s real views of the LGBTQ community.

It is unclear, however, whether Adventure Church is responsible for posting the sign.

“Thank you Rush for teaching us,” a message posted on the Tower Theatre marquee read while appearing to praise the recently deceased conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. “You will be missed very much. But never forgotten. R.I.P.”

Limbaugh, who died Wednesday at 70 years old, had a history of making homophobic comments while providing fiery right-wing views to his millions of listeners.

Among his more recent comments was Limbaugh’s dismissal of the presidential bid of Pete Buttigieg, claiming Americans would be repelled by a “gay guy kissing his husband.”

Adventure Church’s stance on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community has been among the primary reasons that some have opposed the Tower Theatre’s sale to the church. The purchase is in escrow.

“Don’t talk to me about how welcoming Adventure Church is to the LGBTQ community when they allow this up on the marquee next to their church name,” Fresno resident Heather Parish wrote on Twitter.

Some have questioned why Adventure Church would post such a sign when its pastor has previously stated that the church welcomes LGBTQ members.

Others wondered if current Tower Theatre owner Laurence Abbate or someone else was responsible for the marquee.

Adventure Church pastor Anthony Flores did not immediately respond to a message left for him Thursday evening.

But in a video uploaded last month by the church, Flores offered his thoughts on the LGBTQ community.

“We love you and you are welcome to any of the church services that we have,” Flores says in the video. “And we welcome you. We have nothing against anybody.

“There is so much ‘falsesivity’ out there and castigation, and it’s so quick to demonize. But I’ll tell you this: If you’ve been to our church service, you will see that we’ve got nothing but love for you.”

Flores also said in the video that Adventure Church has been holding Sunday services around the Tower District for the past 10 years.

Nonetheless, Thursday’s sign on the theater marquee did not go over well with many on social media.

“They’re not even pretending to be community oriented anymore,” wrote Chelsea Jones.

Added Paul Cruikshank: “Tower Theatre let them do this! Just rubbing our nose in it now. Bullying us.”

Before Thursday’s sign, celebrity comedian Sarah Silverman already believed Adventure Church was “anti-LGBT” and tweeted to fellow celebrities to consider buying the Tower Theatre.

In a book about Limbaugh published in 2010, author Ze’ev Chafets wrote that the radio host and political personality “chastised ‘militant homosexuals’ for their disrespectful behavior and shortly thereafter began broadcasting irreverent and tasteless ‘AIDS Update’ segments introduced by Dionne Warwick’s ‘I’ll Never Love This Way Again.’ ”

“He likely picked that song as another insult to the gay and bi men who had died; they’ll “never love this way again” because they’re dead,” according to lgbtqnation.com.

The Tower Theatre has been up for sale since October with an asking price of $6.5 million.

The church’s bid to buy the theater became public in early January.

This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 10:00 PM.