TOLEDO, Ohio — This weekend marks a major milestone in LGBTQ history: Sunday, June 28 is 51 years since the Stonewall Riots, widely known as the beginning of the gay rights movement.
In Toledo, a solidarity march was held.
Pride is usually filled with parades, music, dancing and parties. It's a celebration of the rights LGBTQ people have fought for. On Sunday, Toledoans marched instead.
Members of the LBGTQ+ community, in unity with Black Lives Matter, marched from the love wall on Adams Street to the courthouse where they held a lie-in for 8 minutes 46 seconds.
That's how long a Minneapolis police officer held his knee to George Floyd's neck.
"We want to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter and also bring awareness to black trans women and their movement to survive. Right now, their life expectancy is 25 years of age and that's not right, that's injustice," Executive Director of Equality Toledo, Sheena Barnes, said.
Equality Toledo hosted speeches by the Love Wall on Adams Street between 13th Street and 12th Street, followed by a march to the courthouse with the mission of supporting LGBTQ people of color and Black Lives Matter.
A listing of names of LGBTQ+ lives lost in our community happened at the courthouse
Savanna Lucci has been involved with both groups.
"Being a person of color, your life is in danger all the time, so if we have to take one year of Pride and express how we feel to get things changed, then next year for pride it will be rainbows, sparkles, unicorns and everything else," Lucci said.
Black transgender women face the highest levels of deadly violence in the LGBTQ community.
If you're gay and Black, according to the Human Rights campaign, you're 30 percent more likely to face violence from police than White LGBTQ individuals.
That's why Barnes says it's important to have allies like Tina Wagner show up to these demonstrations.
"I think it's important for the White people to speak out and listen to the Black voices and listen to the requests. I've spoken out against some of my family and that's been difficult because those relationships are being strained, but it's getting to the point where you need to speak because if you don't, it's going to continue," Wagner said.
Because of concerns with coronavirus, organizers asked everyone to wear masks. Hand sanitizer was also available and social distancing was encouraged.
The city also unveiled a new street sign on the corner of Adams and 13th on Sunday, dubbing Adams Street as "Pride Way".
