Refugees given place of honor for parade

For the first time in its 36-year history, the Columbus Pride Festival and Parade will recognize local LGBTQ refugees in lieu of a grand marshal.

About 15 refugees will ride on a float during Saturday’s parade as community honorees, and will serve as a key element of this year’s Pride event at its new location on the Scioto riverfront.

The reason for the change is political. The decision came in response to President Donald Trump’s hotly debated travel ban, according to Karla Rothan, executive director of Stonewall Columbus, the main LGBTQ organization in central Ohio

and presenter of the festival.

“The current administration is putting a lot of restrictions on new Americans, and lately, we’re finding it difficult to get LGBTQ Muslims in our center,” she said. “We’re doing this to show that we serve all of the LGBTQ community, and we are denying the current political climate.”

Through Stonewall’s partnership with Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS) and other local nonprofits, at least 25 LGBTQ refugees were resettled in Columbus within the past several years, Rothan said.

Most fled from persecution in countries such as Somalia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where homosexuality is punishable by lengthy prison sentences

or death. Targeted attacks, beatings and torture have become commonplace in countries where LGBTQ rights are not protected.

“I think it is really amazing that they (the refugees) will be able to go out and feel welcome,” said Waswa Franco, an employment counselor at CRIS. “What happened in their home countries ... they were always in fear, and now they will get to stand up and show who they are.”

It isn’t the only significant change for this year’s Pride. After eight years of celebrating in the Short North’s Goodale Park, the festival will move back to its original location on the Scioto River, with events in both Bicentennial and Genoa parks. The move also will reverse the parade route: It will begin in the Short North and travel south down High Street to the riverfront.

The change is largely to accommodate the growing attendance of the event, which now brings in more than 500,000 people throughout the weekend, according to Rothan. Columbus has the second-largest Pride gathering in the Midwest.

“We have outgrown Goodale Park,” she said. “It was becoming difficult for vendors and emergency vehicles to move in and out, and we had to squeeze a lot in one space. It became too clustered. The riverfront gives us the option to expand, which we expect in five years.”

Columbus Deputy Police Chief Michael Woods said at a news conference on Thursday morning that there had been no specific threats to Columbus or the Pride festival and parade. However, by Thursday night, police were investigating a social media post that read: “I hope this event turns out like the Boston Marathon a few years back. All (LGBT people) should be killed or at least relocated.”

Woods said at the news conference that security will be very similar to the Columbus Arts Festival, with extra officers on foot, bicycles and horses throughout the event.

He emphasized that parade and festival attendees should report any suspicious activity — especially unattended purses or bags — to authorities immediately.

Police staffing for the festival will not affect services elsewhere in the city, Woods added.

The Pride Festival will run from 4 to 11 p.m. Friday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. The parade will step off at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.