By Rachel Duthie, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – For the first time in its 36-year history, the Columbus PRIDE parade and festival will recognize local LGBTQ refugees in lieu of a grand marshal.
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About 15 refugees will ride on a float at Saturday’s parade as community honorees, and will serve as a key element of this year’s event at its new location on the Riverfront.
Columbus Stonewall Pride Festival, Bicentennial & Genoa Park: Friday 4pm-11pm; Saturday: Parade at 10:30am; Festival 11am-8pm; Sunday, Pride Brunch (11am-1pm)
N. High Street will be closed between W. Goodale Street and E. 5th Avenue for the Pride Parade from 7 am -1 pm Saturday
The reason for the change is nothing short of 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 person 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.”