Members of the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies staged a protest Saturday afternoon on the lawn outside the Bloomington Center for Performing Arts.
The “Stop the Assault on LGBTQ+ and Trans Rights” peaceful protest was sponsored by Bloomington-Normal 50501 and the Prairie Pride Coalition.
Threats to gender-affirming healthcare, proposed budget cuts to HIV and AIDS research and treatment, the banning of transgender military servicemembers and cutbacks to DEI programs are a few examples of motivations for Saturday’s gathering, according to demonstrators.
About 60 protesters held signs and lined the busy street chanting, “No hate, no fear, everyone is welcome here!”
Bloomington-Normal’s 50501, a movement fighting to preserve democracy, has already planned two other peaceful protests for the summer.
Coordinator of Bloomington-Normal 50501, Michael Gizzi, said the local affiliation became official in mid-April. He said the group can be reached on Facebook, Discord and through email groups.
“50501 came together as a way to provide resistance to a government that is showing increasingly authoritarian and neo-fascist tendencies,” Gizzi said.
“Our focus [today] is entirely on stopping the assault on the LGBTQ community and preserving the rights of all people,” Gizzi continued.
Gizzi said seeing the number of attendees was uplifting.
“We’ve had events with as little as 50 people and as many as 3,000. People are taking time out of their Saturday to come out and take a stand,” Gizzi said.
Board president of the Prairie Pride Coalition, Dave Bentlin, said the coalition participates in more community outreach today than when the group was formed 30 years ago.
“I think people feel a good bit safer than they did before,” Bentlin said. “It was not safe to be out in Bloomington-Normal for a lot of people; they were very fearful about recriminations on the job, housing and public accommodations. All of those areas.”
“We’ve continued a number of projects over those years that have really addressed specific populations within our LGBTQIA+ community, including transgender and nonbinary people who are feeling especially marginalized and oppressed these days,” Bentlin continued.
Bentlin cited decisions made since the inauguration of President Trump as leading factors in the Prairie Pride Coalition’s involvement in the community.
“We’ve seen the LGBTQIA+ community erased from history books [and] erased from curriculum—those kinds of threats are very concerning to us,” Bentlin said.
Bentlin said those who are afraid to speak out or appear publicly can still make a difference.
“You can contact your congressperson [and] you can contact your state officials,” Bentlin said. “There’s a lot that can be done behind the scenes, and really, just being educated and aware about the issues so you can have conversations with friends and family members because we really do need to change the hearts and minds of some people.”
Former Bloomington resident Syndy Clark, who held a sign reading "Love," said she and her kids travel to Bloomington for protests regularly.
“I’m here because of my kids,” Clark said. “I’m here to support them, I’m here to stand up for them and to make sure that the place I grew up in—the America I grew up in—is going to be safe for them.”
Clark expressed excitement for the turnout of the protest.
“I just feel like everybody is happy—I mean how could you not be happy with love and rainbows everywhere,” Clark said. “Anybody who has been maybe nervous or hesitant to come out to things like this, just come and stand in the back. See how the vibes are and just see how you feel about it because you’ll quickly realize that we’re all here to support each other.”
Clark stood at the front of the crowd. She said she wants to be on the front lines of the cause.
“I want my friends and my coworkers and my neighbors to know what I stand for,” Clark said.
Protester Mary Kiesewetter shared her thoughts on the impact of the protest.
“I think this shows that this community actually has a lot of love and support,” Kiesewetter said. “It’s easy to see a lot of hate, but honestly, all we’ve gotten so far is support today and I think everybody knows somebody in their life that is a part of that spectrum and that everybody has room in their heart to show love for that community.”
Kiesewetter said there needs to be more tolerance for supporters of the LGBTQIA+ community.
“You can’t even post on social media anymore,” Kiesewetter said. “I’ve gotten strikes against my account, my friend has lost accounts just by posting pro-Pride [content] and I think discrimination is the worst I’ve seen in my life.”
Sgt. Kiel Nowers of the Bloomington Police Department's community engagement unit said he often supervises organized protests.
“We’ve got a great relationship with virtually every group you can think of in our community,” Nowers said. “I think the No. 1 thing every law enforcement person is in favor of is that everybody [should] be treated with dignity, respect and feel safe.”
Nowers said the community engagement unit was formed three years ago. He said one of their objectives is to ease tension that some might have toward police officers.
“We want everybody to know they should feel safe and comfortable coming to their police—their local law enforcement—whether that means reporting crimes [or] inviting us to come to events like this,” Nowers said.
Two more protests have been planned Bloomington-Normal 50501. The first will occur at 1:30 p.m. July 12 in Uptown Normal and the second, titled “Good Trouble Lives On,” will occur from 5:30-7:30 p.m. July 17 at the Bloomington Center for Performing Arts. ‘
“We’ve always said that we are a relatively small minority community [LGBTQIA+] but at the same time, we rely even more on our allies to help us get things done and they always step up. We are so grateful for that,” Bentlin said.
