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Columbus Community Pride 2019: Decades of Resistance - the origin, the history, and today

Four young black women posing behind an older black woman in a chair

Pride season is a monumental one this year, considering that 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. This revolutionary uprising, led largely by queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) against oppressive police forces raiding the Stonewall Inn, ignited the modern movement for LGBTQIA+ rights.

Their uprising in New York was very much in the footsteps of the LGBTQIA+ folks who rose up against violent, transphobic police officers three years prior at the Compton Cafeteria Riots in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. Though white homonormativity soon began to dominate the general narrative around LGBTQIA+ experiences, there were militant trans women of color, like Miss Major, Marsha P Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera who rejected assimilation and instead fiercely advocated for the true liberation of the most marginalized. They consistently uplifted low-income trans women of color, houseless queer and trans youth, and sex workers in their communities until their dying days.

#CountOurBallotsCBUS Day of Action

A white sign on a wood wall with a flag and an arrow pointing left and the word VOTE

Monday, June 3, 2019, 3:00 PM
Pack the house to protect the vote! Advocates will present to the Board of Elections new findings that show voters’ rights may be in jeopardy. Now is the time to take action and protect voting rights! Use your voice by attending the Franklin County Board of Elections meeting at 3 pm on Monday, June 3rd, 2019 to advocate for Countywide voter education programming and more comprehensive poll worker training. High rates of provisional ballot use - and rejection - not only raise questions about the health of the election system but also reflect barriers to voters being able to cast a ballot that counts.Show up and let election officials know we need to reform the system now!  Location: Franklin County Board of Elections Office, 1700 Morse Rd., Columbus, OH 43229.  Sign up here:  https://go.peoplepower.org/event/action/20010

Community Pride Safety Training: Harm Reduction

Big white outdoor sign saying Columbus Community Pride with two fist drawings

Sunday, June 2, 2019, 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Mozaic, 2228 Summit St.
More than a naloxone training, this FREE workshop will address the fundamental principles behind harm reduction, describing how and why a compassionate, "nothing about us without us" approach to drug use saves lives by limiting the harm caused by stigma, lack of safe supplies, and de-humanizing carceral approach to addiction. Harm reduction advocates who organize in Columbus and across Ohio will describe what tools and programs are being used to value and save the lives of drug users.  Attendees will leave the workshop with important harm reduction supplies, such as narcan and sterile needles. Sheila Humphrey-Craig of Harm Reduction Ohio will also introduce her groundbreaking mock safe consumption tent, which will be on display as a resource at the Community Pride Festival.  Facebook. 

Murdering a ton of Iraqis

Shattering the Context of War

The U.S. government protects itself, not democracy. That’s what is most apparent about its 18-count indictment of Julian Assange, not to mention the ongoing imprisonment of Chelsea Manning, for the leaking and release of State Department and military documents and videos a decade ago.

The current reporting on the indictment is mostly about Assange himself: his expulsion from the Ecuadoran embassy in London after he’d been holed up there for seven years; the sexual assault charges against him in Sweden; and, of course, his role as a “tool” of the Russians, along with his flip-flopping appeal to both the political left and right (depending on the nature of the controversy WikiLeaks is stirring up). What a story!

You Can Almost Count on Each New Mass Shooter Being a Veteran

“He enlisted in the Virginia National Guard in April 1996, according to spokesman A.A. Puryear. He was assigned to the Norfolk-based 1st Battalion, 111th Field Artillery Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team as a 13B cannon crew member. He was discharged in April 2002 and held the rank of specialist at the time, the spokesman said. His records did not indicate overseas deployments.” —CNN on latest mass shooter

We’re supposed to overlook this bit of information. We’re supposed to focus on mental health questions or the inscrutable incomprehensible mystery of the inevitable human tragedy of mass shootings, which bizarrely and unfairly are inflicted by the universe on this particular 4 percent of humanity living in the United States, which quite irrelevantly has been glorifying violence through endless wars for many years.

Protest Against The Ohio Heartbeat Bill

Black woman at rally holding a sign that says Pro privacy, pro family, pro choice

Saturday, June 1, 2019, 4:00 – 6:00 PM
Join us for a peaceful protest in the heart of Ohio in front of our government officials. Let them know we do not stand for the Heartbeat Bill. It goes against Roe v. Wade and our body autonomy. This war on progression needs to come to an end.  Location:  Ohio Statehouse, 1 Capitol Square, Columbus 43215.  Facebook.  

OHIO Anti-Nuclear Protests Scheduled

NO NUKES! Anti-HB6 Protests Scheduled Across Ohio
Scheduled Protests:
TOLEDO: Monday, June 3, 4:30 to 6:30PM, 300 Madison Ave. (Toledo Edison Building.

COLUMBUS: Wednesday, June 5, 4:30 to 6:30PM, Ohio Statehouse, corner of 3rd and State.

AKRON: Friday, June 7, 4:30 to 6:30PM, Venue to be determined.

House Bill 6 would eliminate Ohio's energy efficiency and clean energy programs, and instead replace them with a charge on every Ohioan's electric bill that would go to bailout First Energy's crumbling, leaking Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants, as well as two coal fired plants, one in Indiana.

Opponents will be gathering at three locations across the state during the first week in June to protest this unacceptable nuclear power tax on Ohioans. Wind and solar power are cheaper and can easily replace both Davis-Besse and Perry plants. However, the Republican controlling the Ohio state government are hostile to clean energy, and instead want to protect First Energy, one of the largest donors to the Republican Party.

State Rep Kennedy Kent Barred From Democratic Caucus

Rep Kennedy Kent Barred From Meeting By Democratic Minority Caucus Legal Counsel Sarah Cherry

Rep Bernadine Kennedy Kent publicly announced Thursday she notified the House Speaker she will not return to the Statehouse, or her legislative office at the Riffe Center, until her exclusion from the democratic caucus and her complaint against two employees is addressed.
 

Rep Kennedy Kent, a black woman with a track record of exposing police misconduct and fraud, was excluded from the Ohio House Democratic caucus last year after Representative Stephanie Howse filed a written complaint against Rep Kennedy Kent alleging her electronic signature was forged on a public records request to the mayor regarding evidence that police ignored reports of child sexual abuse of black girls.
 

Now, a year later, as Howse’s criminal complaint against Rep Kennedy Kent has been resolved with a determination of no wrongdoing, Rep Kennedy Kent wants her rights as an elected Democrat acknowledged and her privileges restored to her office including admittance to caucus meetings, access to legal services and staff, and training for her legislative aid.

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