New protests raise voices of LGBTQ community, mothers
Two protests of police violence took place simultaneously Saturday, one outside Mayor Andrew Ginther’s house and one Downtown.
Each sought to lift up the voices of groups seen by protesters as needing more representation: the LGBTQ community and mothers.
Black, Queer & Intersectional Collective and the Columbus Freedom Coalition kicked off Speak-Out for All Black Lives in front of the mayor’s house in The Knolls on the Northwest Side at 8 a.m. About 150 supporters proceeded to “wake up” Ginther with pots, pans, drums, horns, a DJ and even a tap-dance performance.
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A large banner that said, “Don’t Talk to Cops” was placed in the mayor’s yard. Two officers arrived but left after a few minutes.
“This uprising that is happening across our country and the globe is an extension of the rage that we are feeling and the grief that we are feeling,” Dkeama Alexis of BQIC told the crowd. “We’ve lost a lot, but not a lot of the names that I am mourning, and a lot of the names that my friends are mourning, are getting raised up in the same way.”
The event brought attention to several deaths in the Black LGTBQ community, particularly of trans women, including Nina Pop, Monika Diamond, Dominique Fells and Riah Milton. Alexis noted that not only police but people in the community are responsible for the deaths of trans women.
Alexis also mentioned Tyre King, Julius Ervin Tate Jr., Donna Dalton and others killed by the Columbus Division of Police, and organizers announced 12 demands of the city, including the resignation of Ginther and the defunding of the police division.
Shatonna Missick, 32, of Reynoldsburg, attended the rally to support her husband, Luther, an American Sign Languague interpreter for the event, and to speak out against “unwarranted, unnecessary” uses of force by police, she said.
“This is my first (protest),” she admitted. “I’ve been at home with my kids.”
Several miles away, mothers had their children with them for the Mothers March for Justice organized Downtown by Chosen4Change, a Columbus nonprofit that serves those incarcerated, those formerly incarcerated and their families.
About 75 people marched twice in a loop around City Hall and the Columbus Division of Police while holding signs and chanting, “Black Lives Matter,” “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and other phrases.
Chosen4Change founder Patrice Palmer, 57, of Whitehall, said it was important to give mothers a voice in the fight against police violence, especially after watching video footage of George Floyd, who died in May after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.
“When he called out for his mother, that had to touch every heart of a mother and a grandmother all across this country,” said Palmer, who is calling for police reform. “We are struggling with the unrest in a different capacity.”
March participant Tonya Bailey, 49, of the North Side, said she also was touched by Floyd’s call for his mother.
“I have a Black son who I’ve had to talk to several times about what to do when pulled over,” she said. “I’m also an educator and a high school principal, and I have to talk to my students of all races about the injustices.”
Palmer also encouraged participants to vote and take a pledge to get active.
“The first thing you can do is use your voice in your circle of influence.”
ethompson@dispatch.com
@miss_ethompson
