The city’s Office of LGBT Affairs and other organizations will sponsor a “Pop-Up Love Party” Saturday to counteract the message of the “Free Speech Bus Tour.”
“Philling Our Streets With Love at Hate Speech Bus Tour” will take place from 11 a.m.-noon April 1 on the northeast corner of City Hall. Details can be found on the event’s Facebook page: http://bit.ly/2mIE3d0.
Three conservative groups — The National Organization for Marriage, the International Organization for the Family and CitizenGo — are sponsoring an orange bus painted with male and female stickers along with the message: “Boys are boys.. and always will be. Girls are girls.. and always will be. You can’t change sex. Respect all.”
In an email to PGN, city Director of LGBT Affairs Amber Hikes noted the demonstration will include speakers of trans experience.
“We feel it is principally important to center the voices, experience and narrative of trans people at this event,” Hikes said. “Too often, cisgender people take front stage when it comes to trans issues. While it is essential to support the trans community, we encourage people to be intentional about their efforts. At this event, we ask cisgender people to show their support and solidarity with our trans siblings with signs and their physical presence.”
One of the speakers at the event is Sharron Cooks, who is also organizing the event through the Commission on LGBT Affairs’ Transgender Equality Committee. She said she is “very happy to be the point person for this event.”
“I am very happy to see that the Office of LGBT Affairs initiated this event,” Cooks said. “I am very excited and thrilled that so many organizations like the Trans-Health Information Project, GALAEI and Mazzoni Center are going to be a part of the counter-protest. There are so many community members who are helping out with promoting the event who are doing a lot of back-end organizing that are being very diligent in tracking the whereabouts of the [bus].”
Cooks noted Title IX guidelines being rescinded and the lack of protections for LGBT people in Pennsylvania.
“This is more than just about that bus,” Cooks said. “It’s about starting to center activities around the transgender community.”
The tour was initially supposed to make a stop in Philadelphia March 29 but it was rescheduled due to ongoing vandalism of the bus in other cities. The National Organization for Marriage recently issued a statement requesting donations for repairs.
“The repairs were more extensive than expected and we need to raise additional funds to cover this cost,” the statement read. “Will you please make a financial contribution so that we can put this terrible assault behind us so that we can help cover these expensive repairs to the #FreeSpeechBus and get back on the road? We also need additional funds to help add new security cameras to the bus.”
Other sponsoring organizations include the Mayor’s Commission on LGBT Affairs, GALAEI, Trans-Health Information Project (TIP), The Attic Youth Center, William Way LGBT Community Center, America Civil Liberties Union, DVLF, Independent Business Alliance, Mazzoni Center, Whosoever Metropolitan Community Church and Philadelphia Family Pride.