People dancing and a rainbow flag flying

Yesterday, June 14, 2018, Vice President Mike Pence came to Columbus, ironically during Gay Pride week. LGBTQ groups protested his visit, hosting DJs and drag queens in a dance party to make the notorious homophobic uncomfortable.

The event, as reported on CNN, went this way: "Crowds converged on a small stretch of Gay Street -- you read that right -- outside the hotel where Pence was speaking to a separate group about tax reform. Videos posted to social media showed crowd members raising rainbow flags and dancing to loud music. They were celebrating the kickoff of Columbus' Pride Festival, but organizers also wanted to send a message to the vice president."

Pence could barely get a word out in his speech to a couple of hundred supporters at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Columbus when protestors converged on the event shouting loudly about ICE raids and family separation. Pence was repeatedly heckled while he touted tax reform, attacked Ohio Democratic Senator Shsrrod Brown, and announced his support for candidate Troy Balderson, running for Republican Congressman Pat Tiberi's seat in the 12th district.

The local NARAL organization (National Abortion Rights Action League) put out this statement about Pence; "Mike Pence is the greatest threat to reproductive freedom this country has ever seen. In 2011, we worked to stop the Pence amendment in Congress from shutting down the federal government in his battle to defund family planning health care. In 2014, we watched how our neighbors in Indiana suffered under the draconian anti-abortion policies that Mike Pence pushed as governor. In 2018, we know the worst attacks from Donald Trump against any person seeking abortion care or against the LGBTQ community come directly from his vice president.

Columbus Police allowed the Gay Dance Party protest in the street and escorted protestors out of the hotel with no arrests.