NEW ORLEANS — The Red Dress Run, the city's annual 'run' through the French Quarter where hundreds if not thousands of people walk, run and dress in skimpy red outfits, found itself apologizing for a post that appeared on its Facebook page that labeled non-gender-conforming people as "weird."
It appeared to be an attempt to turn around the recent Democratic move to label Donald Trump's vice-presidential running mate J.D. Vance as weird. The image in question showed some people identifying as LGBTQ with the word "weird" and then a photo of Vance and his family with the words "not weird."
Given that the race surrounds all people - men, women, non-conforming gender individuals, all wearing red dresses in celebration of the commonality of having fun, that image generated a lot of blowback.
Bill Healy, a spokesman for the group, told NOLA.com that most of the followers of the Red Dress Run are able to post freely to the page and that he and other administrators will go back after the fact and remove those they find inappropriate or tasteless.
Healy admitted to NOLA.com that the organization didn't move quickly enough this time around.
“This is not us, this is not who we are," he said.
Healy said the organization is changing its Facebook posting regulations to require any post to the page be pre-approved.
Over the past 15 years, he said, the charity run’s registration fees have generated roughly $2.5 million for scores of small non-profit organizations.
