First-ever Bloomington Pride draws protests

Organizers say it was supposed to be about love and acceptance.

But the first-ever Bloomington Pride celebration was met with protesters.

“We don’t think it’s appropriate for the city to be spending our tax dollars on such a controversial event,” said Becky Strohmeier, a spokesperson for the group Bloomington Patriots.

On Saturday afternoon, 98th Street became a dividing line between the protesters and members of the LGBTQ community and their families.

Bloomington resident Melissa Chesky came to the event to support her daughter, Madison.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Chesky said. “My God loves everybody no matter who you are and who you are with.”

There was some verbal sparring and a few shoving incidents between the two sides that were up by police.

Strohmeier says the protesters were concerned about two issues: the event’s cost and the appearance of a drag queen performer singing or reading to children at the celebration.

“It’s not really the event. It’s the fact that taxpayers are paying for it,” she said. “The drag queen is not appropriate for children. They don’t live lives that are appropriate to influencing children in whatever way.”

But Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse disagrees.

"Performing here on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Bloomington, it’s different than the 12:30 a.m. show at Gay 90s downtown and performers understand that,” he said.

But Busse says there have been issues.

He says one performer slated to appear had posted some explicit content on social media, but the city investigated and dropped that person from the program.

Busse addressed the question of what’s appropriate for events like Pride this way:

“I think we’ve seen it across the country and other places, where story hours in libraries have had drag performers read to children,” he said. “And if I think if these stories are appropriate and if the drag performers are appropriate to their audience, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t have drag performers reading to children.”

We asked performer Harrie Bradshaw about the content of the show.

“With Pride in particular, it is about love and acceptance,” Bradshaw said. “We know there are children here. We are actors, singers, sewers, dancers, we know the difference between what is an adult show and what is a family-friendly show."

Public records show the City of Bloomington spent $4,500 toward Pride. Private contributors donated $2,500, according to those records.

Busse says the city is planning to make the gathering an annual event.

"I kind of thought that people would be here protesting this,” Chesky said. ”But it’s really sad and everybody should come together."