A crowd estimated at about 1000 gathered in Lexington Sunday for the community’s first LGBTQ Pride Rally and March.
Organizers say the event on the downtown Courthouse Square was planned in “solidarity” with a national rally in Washington, D.C.
Josh Mers is Chair of Lexington Fairness, one of the groups involved in making the rally and a subsequent march happen, “Today is not about protesting. Today is about celebrating who we are as a community and just reminding those elected leaders and those that want to represent us that this community pays attention and we will not be silent.”
Mers noted that Monday is the first anniversary of the mass-shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, “In the last year, we’ve seen a great response from our local public safety division in Lexington to make sure that events like this, like the Pride Festival, like rallies that we do are safe.”
In memory of the victims of the Pulse massacre, the crowd observed a moment of silence.
Representing the local transgender community in helping put the rally together was Tuesday Meadows. The retired grocery story manager who made her transition as a female later in life, is concerned about the well-being of transgender youth, “Transgender kids are thirteen times more likely to attempt suicide when they’re not supported by their family and friends. I mean that’s a horrible statistic and a lot of them are successful in their attempted suicides.”
Following the rally on the Courthouse Square, most of the participants took part in a march through downtown Lexington.
