COLUMBUS, Ohio — Stonewall Columbus’ PRIDE Festival and March return to Columbus starting Thursday and businesses are ramping up their safety preparations.
“I think now more than ever, especially since everyone is under such scrutiny for who they are as a gender role, who they're going home with, it's really important to make sure we're standing together, we're banding together, we have our allies there fighting the good fight and just showing we're here, we exist and we're not going anywhere,” said Nick Elokovitch, the director of promotions for Union Café and Axis Nightclub.
Elkovitch said he expects wall to wall crowds over the weekend for all the festivities.
“It's a four-day long block party and there's so many different pieces to it, a huge sense of community and it's definitely our most fun,” Elkovitch said.
Restaurants are working with the Columbus Division of Fire to ensure safety with capacity restrictions.
“We've been working with the police department for heightened security and we've also beefed up our own security team to make sure we've got the safest environment ever because this is such an important event,” Elkovitch said.
Nick Sinclair, the market manager for Markets at Pearl, said his nonprofit organization just hosted “Pride at Pearl” last week and had a massive success. He says the area felt completely safe, and they are now preparing to host “Sunlight Market” this Sunday featuring LGBTQ+ vendors at Gay Street and Pearl Street.
“With SID Publics Services Association, we have a dedicated team of safety ambassadors, so about 15-20 safety ambassadors that patrol downtown Columbus alongside special duty officers that sort of just keep an eye on things, provide a reassuring presence to residents, citizens and businesses that are out and about,” Sinclair said.
Dublin resident Jeanne Ogden said she’s excited to attend pride and support her transgender daughter, but said she definitely has concerns. She advises people to stay together and be on alert.
“Go places in groups. Make sure you let people know where to go. If there's a problem. If there's any kind of disturbance at the festival, you should have a meeting place so that you and your friends and family can meet and make sure everybody's safe,” Ogden said.
Ogden advises community members to travel in groups, especially to and from the bathrooms which in her experience, has been a target area for hate groups to harass members of the LGBTQ+ community.