On Saturday I went to a Tea Party event in Lansing, Michigan where I spent over three hours. There were vendors walking around hawking Gadsden flags, but at no point did I see any table or vendor selling "STRAIGHT PRIDE" signs, nor did I see anyone wearing a "STRAIGHT PRIDE" T-shirt.

A reporter named Todd Heywood says he did, though, and he offers pictures as proof. Problem is, the pictures he displays show absolutely nothing to indicate that the signs or T-shirts were worn at the Lansing Tea Party event.

That could have been taken anywhere.

So could this:

If I saw something I didn't like being sold somewhere, and I wanted to prove it with a photograph, wouldn't common sense suggest that I take a wide enough shot to include enough of the surroundings to indicate the location?

Call me skeptical.

Moreover, the reporter claims that the "vendor's" company name "could not be made out on the tape" -- but alleges that he was affiliated with the Tea Party Express:

LANSING- State and national organizations who represent the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are expressing outrage over t-shirts bearing the slogan "Straight Pride" offered for sale at a Saturday rally of the Tea Party Express.

The person selling the t-shirts told the Michigan Messenger that his company -- the name of the company could not be made out on the tape due to a loud blast of noise, but it ended in "free media" -- was an official sponsor and financial supporter of the Tea Party Express, saying that they typically give 10-15 percent of their sales to the organization. He wore a button saying "official sponsor."

From nothing more than this reporter's scanty claim, there are headlines all over the Internet screaming "Why is the Tea Party selling "Straight Pride" t-shirts? Is it a shot at gays?" and "Straight Pride" t-shirts now on sale at Tea Party rallies

For the reasons I explained here, I think such signs and T-shirts would be as inappropriate at a Tea Party event as would a "GAY PRIDE" or "BLACK PRIDE" t-shirt. But I'm not even sure the merits are the issue. I'm skeptical over whether it happened. Were these signs and T-shirts sold there?

Does anyone actually know?

MORE: I spoke with Levi Russell, who is the Communications Director for the Tea Party Express. While he was unaware of any "STRAIGHT PRIDE" shirts or stickers for sale at the Lansing event, he told me that except for their own vendors who sell only their own buttons, the Tea Party Express does not control (and legally cannot control) what vendors sell, and that they operate independently of Tea Party Express.

Which means I guess I could go there and sell pit bull T-shirts, and legalize marijuana stickers. That would not make them Tea Party issues -- any more than the failure of Tea Party Express to stop me!

MORE: Michigan Messenger editor Ed Brayton comments below:

Eric, you know I'm a big fan of your blog. You may not know that I am the editor of the Michigan Messenger. I can assure you that the shirts were being sold there. We do, in fact, have a picture of the guy who sold the shirts with his "official sponsor" button on. We didn't put it in the story because I never imagined anyone would actually challenge the mere fact that they were being sold (I certainly expected people to disagree with whether it matters). You may not have seen the shirts, but they were there. We have many more pictures of it, and the audio of the interview with the person selling them. I'd be happy to send it to you and you can hear for yourself what he says and why, much to my frustration, we could not make out the first word in the name of his company. Todd Heywood is an excellent reporter who would never make up such a thing, and I certainly would not allow it on the site if we were not 100% certain about it.

However, as I was told by Mr. Russell that the only official Tea Party vendors do not sell these items, I would wonder whether the presence of a button saying "Official Sponsor" actually makes the guy an official sponsor (much less an official vendor, as the story is being spun).

Stay tuned....

MORE: The following picture -- which shows a man wearing a button which appears to say Tea Party Express) was sent to me by Ed Brayton along with audio.

Whoever is speaking on the audio (which I am told is the guy in the picture) states that whatever he is selling (and that is not discussed, so there's no way to know from the audio whether it included "STRAIGHT PRIDE" T-shirts) is not official Tea Party Express merchandise, and as Levi Russell told me Tea Party Express does not and cannot control these vendors, I don't see how they have any responsibility for whatever he was selling. It sounds as if he says he's with "Hank's free media" or maybe "Tax Free Media."

I don't know where this man's stand was and why I didn't see it or him, as I walked all around. He may have come after I arrived, and I didn't see him later. (It did get dark while I was there, and the above picture was taken in the dark.)

And what I still have not seen is a picture of the actual shirt or stickers being sold there, although, considering Ed Brayton's additional information, it looks like they may have been.

But I see nothing to indicate involvement by the Tea Party Express with these items. Unless you believe in guilt by association.

MORE: So, what I have is a picture of a man wearing a button, and an interview with a vendor -- neither of which makes references the "STRAIGHT PRIDE" shirt.

Should I retract my skepticism?

UPDATE (4/17/10): A commenter who says he's the man in the photo has responded. He says he was not the seller "STRAIGHT PRIDE" T-shirts, and that he was asked no questions about them in the audio, but that he has now been persuaded to start selling them!

I am a capitalist, I sell gay pride flags to gays at a huge gay pride rally in Atlanta, and I sell straight pride t-shirts at gun shows, if I thought the gay pride shirts would sell at tea parties, I would offer them.

Double standards are crap.

Do not take a right for yourself (flaunting gay pride messaged apparel) and then forbid me the same right by flaunting straight pride messaged apparel.

The ones with the double standards are the real bigots. Special set aside rights for special groups.. sounds discriminatory to me.

Here is the funny thing. I am the man in the picture above. I was NOT selling those Tshirts, but the vendor next to me was, since the uproar, I have decided to carry that merchandise.

The "reporter" was trying to get dirt on the tea party, so he targets t shirt vendors? He approached me asking questions with his recording device hidden, and his camera tucked into his jacket with it zipped up. Every other member of the media on this and previous trips has been polite, has introduced themselves,has identified themselves as media and has asked if we would mind being taped, or recorded. Not this clown. He came with an agenda, he got it wrong.

All he had to do was ask. I called him an asshole on site for being rude and not introducing himself first. Listen to the tape and you will hear that I told him we "Typically donate 10 to 15% to the LOCAL Organizers of tea party events and sometimes to the tea party express" by donating the checks we receive for merchandise directly to that cause.

As for the "Official sponsor button", it;s actually more of an inside joke for the vendors at the tea party express rallies. Last year there was a member of the board at TPX who wanted to control who got to sell what merchandise and their/her preferred vendors made up official sponsor tags and buttons. We made those buttons up to mock the attempt to regulate a micro market like that (the vendors who follow the tpx) by people who are supposedly for free trade and unregulated markets (Tea party express).

This year that person is no longer with the TPX ad the vendors have not been similarly harassed, but the buttons stayed.

BTW, he did not ask about the tshirts (if he had, he would have taken a picture of the vendor next to me and recorded him secretly and not me) in question, he only asked questions about how much money we make, and what does the official button mean.

I already said what I thought about the merits of the "STRAIGHT PRIDE" meme. I am 100% against censorship, but I don't think it's any more of a Tea Party issue than "gay pride" or "black pride." As to the knee-jerk comparison that many lefties are making with "WHITE PRIDE," I think the latter is a more complicated issue, because of its clear association with extreme groups like Nazis and the Klan. So I think a "WHITE PRIDE" sticker would be even more inappropriate for a vendor to sell at a Tea Party, even though I would defend anyone's constitutional right to do so.

As whether the primary goal of the "STRAIGHT PRIDE" sticker is politically incorrect satire or the assertion of identity politics, I don't know. I once had an amusing bumpersticker which read "HETEROSEXUALS HAVE RIGHTS TOO!" and I'm pretty sure that was satire. (I put it on an aquarium to be funny.)

Anyone can put anything on anything -- a car, a shirt, or a table. It speaks only for that individual, and it is problematic to extrapolate further.

But to take this to the extreme, let's suppose someone showed up at a Tea Party and started hawking "WHITE PRIDE" stickers. If that's all it takes to indict the Tea Party movement, then I'd expect someone to do it.