Cleveland Pride Celebrations Canceled No Clear Explanation Given
The 28th annual Cleveland Pride celebrations, which would have included a LGBT-Pride parade, rallies and celebrations, has been canceled for this year.
No clear explanations or reasons for the cancellation of celebrations has been given.
Cleveland Pride C.E.O. and president, Todd J. Saporito, has released a statement that only offers vague reasons for the cancellation of the annual celebratory event:
“We have been entrusted by our community to create a secure parade and festival environment for our LGBTQ brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, friends and allies,” he said. “Because of the changing social climate, Cleveland Pride did not have enough time to engage in the development of awareness programs and training that we believe is critical in today’s environment. Therefore, we regretfully cancelled our 28th annual parade, rally and festival this year.”
The security measures that would have to be undertaken in a post-Pulse world would have to augmented for any city holding such celebrations.
The reasons for the cancelation of Cleveland Pride celebrations may have been numerous. There may have been security threats against the event that needed more preparation time to prepare against. Or perhaps Cleveland Pride organizers may not have had been able to provide adequate security or insure the security of the participating public.
Whatever the reasons, the controversial decision, and the fact that no explanation for the cancellation was respectfully offered, has stunned and saddened the LGBT community.
Things have changed after the Pulse nightclub mass murders.
Omar Mateen, the Pulse nightclub killer who killed 49 people, created a hate-killer precedent for people to commit similar acts sometime in the future.
That fact has to be taken deadly seriously.
We live in a world where one can be slaughtered just for having fun, dancing and having a drink in an LGBT-friendly establishment, never mind being actually gay.
But the world should not end. It cannot end.
Canceling every LBGT-related Pride event cannot be the answer to what happened at Pulse.
The proper security cautions have to be made. The public has to made secure.
I get that.
But just deciding that every LGBT-related event would be a would-be target for hate-violence is a self-defeating measure.
And a self-enforcing dream for homophobes and the enemies of the LGBT community.
We can’t all run into the closet and lock ourselves in.
Wannabe-jihadist mass killers, and sexually confused self-hating people, like Omar Mateen and homophobes who approved of the killer’s actions, would love to live in a world where every LGBT Pride parade is cancelled because of fear of homophobic violence. It would be an ideal.
Shame on Saporito
The LGBT Proud community will never be silenced or frightened away.
Our civic right and freedom to publicly display pride, celebration and love of our identity will never be canceled.
The world should witness the solidarity and resolve of the LGBT spirit as it realistically, prudently but proudly continue on with our celebrations.
Cancelling our pride celebrations and living in a world where we are afraid to publicly express our identities is the aim that Mateen, as well as casual and overt homophobes, want to achieve.
