Celina, Ohio, celebrated their third Pride festival on Saturday, June 24. Hundreds of local LGBTQ+ Ohioans and their allies gathered for a joy-filled day of food, music, drag performances and community in the small city located on the western edge of Ohio, 58 miles northwest of Dayton.
Also present at Celina Pride: a few dozen protesters.
“Right before the drag show was set to begin, we saw Christian protesters march up from one direction and the Aryan White Nationalists come in from another,” said Arienne Childrey, director of Northwest Ohio Trans Advocacy.
The two groups settled in only a few yards from each other: the red-shirted Christians with signs protesting the presence of children at Pride standing just a few feet away from from the black-masked neo-Nazis with their camouflage pants and signs declaring their affiliation with “white power.”
Some Pride goers did what they could to minimize the hate on display.
“Myself and a group of friends from both Northwest Ohio Trans Advocacy and the All Human Alliance gathered in front of the White Nationalists to block them from view of Pride goers,” said Childrey.
At one point, the red-shirts and the black-shirts convened together.
A notable protester
One of the individuals standing with the red shirts near the neo-Nazis was of particular note and familiar to the local community: Rep. Angela King (R-Celina), clad in a red shirt herself.
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Last week King voted for HB 8 (“The Parents’ Bill of Rights”) and HB 68, which bans gender-affirming care and trans female athletes. A licensed realtor, she sat on the Public Health Policy committee that heard HB 68 and repeatedly asserted that hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers cause permanent damage, despite board-certified doctors testifying before her that they do not.
Although her presence protesting Celina Pride was unsurprising to attendees, they were nonetheless disappointed.
“Seeing [Rep.] King among the protesters made it very clear to me that LGBTQ+ Ohioans in the 84th district are living without representation,” Childrey said. “I can’t say I was shocked, but it was a visceral cringe to know that the person who is supposed to represent me stands with the very people who hate individuals like me and want us erased from public life.”
The Buckeye Flame reached out to Rep. King for comment on both her presence protesting a Pride event in her district as well as her proximity to neo-Nazis. This piece will be updated if such a response is received.
Resilience and Pride ahead
Despite the group of protesters and their local state representative embedded within them, local organizers said the Pride festival was an overwhelming success.
“It is truly an honor to be surrounded by such an amazing group of people year after year, and to be able to create a space where they feel comfortable showing up as their true selves,” said Kyle Bruce, the president and co-founder of Small Town Pride, the nonprofit organization that hosts Pride.
Bruce said that the local LGBTQ+ community keenly knows that the current landscape of LGBTQ+ equality in Ohio has many battles ahead, particularly in rural Ohio. Still, he proudly declared that Pride organizers are resilient and prepared to do what they can to host more festivals in the future.
“We are ready for the fight that is before us and we are ready to hit the ground running for next year,” Bruce promised.
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