LOUISVILLE, Ky. — As thousands gathered to celebrate pride and visibility within the Louisville LGBTQ+ community, they were joined by top city stakeholders and leaders alike, reaffirming support.
In its seventh year, the Louisville Pride Festival's theme is "There's No Place Like Home."
Louisville Pride Foundation executive director Mike Slanton said it was a decisive action, in response to the nationwide rise in anti-trans legislation, including Kentucky's SB 150, passed in March.
"We wanted to remind people about the importance of chosen family in times of turbulence," Slanton said. "It's also an affirmation that [Louisville] is our home and no one can take it from us."
During the event, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg spoke to an audience about the city's ongoing commitment to LGBTQ+ visibility.
"[The Pride] flag should not just fly during Pride month, in June," Greenberg said. "It should fly every day of the year. And that flag is still flying in front of Metro Hall."
"That's a huge step when [Louisville] Metro Government flies the pride flag," Slaton said. "That's not something that happened 20 years ago."
Moments after, as thousands clapped and cheered, a small group of five appeared to want to disrupt the event, raising hateful signs and using a megaphone to deliver words too obscene for WHAS11 to share.
In response, dozens more LGBTQ+ supporters used flags and umbrellas to block the group out of site. It is a response they've had to use countless times before.
"Our goal is to leave them on the other side of the umbrella," Ruth Merriam, a queer Kentuckian who works with the Louisville-based Parasol Patrol group, said.
At a certain point, WHAS11 viewed one of the five men be handcuffed and taken off the scene by LMDC officers. About an hour or so after that, the other four left, voluntarily.
"You're not accomplishing anything by coming to a Pride Festival," Korey Cullins, a a fellow member of the LGBTQ+, said. "It's just them trying to come in and push their views on people that don't believe the same things."
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