'Hillsboro Pride' event at Liberty Park prompts debate at city council meeting

Nearly half of the June 15 Hillsboro City Council meeting was devoted to citizens’ comments, as a recent “Hillsboro Pride in the Park” event prompted a discussion among several area residents.

The event was held June 3 at Liberty Park and hosted by Hillsboro Pride Ohio. (Although not a city-sanctioned event, it was held at a city park.)

According to their website, “Hillsboro Pride Ohio is a community-based organization that celebrates and supports the LGBTQ+ community in Hillsboro, Ohio. Our mission is to create a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for all members of the LGBTQ+ community.” The June 3 event was intended to “celebrate diversity and inclusion,” the website says. Similar events have been held at Liberty Park in the past, although not hosted by this specific group.

The first individual to speak, Jeremiah Ogden, distributed items, such as condoms, and photos from the event to council members. He alleged that there was “lewd behavior” occurring in front of children as well as a group of people apparently actively worshiping Satan at the park.

“There were drag queens, satanists and a group walking around throwing condoms in people’s faces,” Ogden said. “This was labeled as family-friendly, for all ages, but as you can see, this was not for all family members.”

In addition to speaking out about the event, Ogden asked council to “amend the city ordinance for adult entertainment to include drag shows and drag queen story hours.” He said there was a group from Cincinnati attending the event that “went straight from [Hillsboro] the next day to a pride story hour with children in Northern Kentucky. This is not unnormal [sic] for these people to do.”

Another local resident, Dale Zornes, also said he had “concerns about what transpired” at the event, including seeing a woman wearing very little clothing, which he said was “inappropriate to me;” “vulgar movements;” and various expletives.

“There needs to be something done, where we don't have the sexually explicit, the vulgarness that goes on,” Zornes said. “I saw several other things that I felt was inappropriate. I did speak to a police officer, and he said that was not against the law.

“Now, if that's in our decency laws — in other words, that's not considered indecent — I would encourage you to also consider looking at those laws that are ordinances that we have on the books and change that, because to me, that's completely inappropriate in a public venue.”

Zornes added that since the event was held “out in the public” at a park instead of in a private place, “this is completely inappropriate.”

“At the end of the day, I just think Hillsboro is better than this,” he said. “I’d appreciate it if you guys would really consider doing something to stop this type of behavior in our city.”

Several members of the Hillsboro Pride Ohio organization also spoke, addressing the first two citizens’ concerns and requests.

The Hillsboro Pride Ohio Board of Directors president, Jerry Bailey, said that their group was formed this year to run the event “in response to a lot of the concerns voiced” Thursday, after past events included “certain behaviors” that the current group “wasn’t OK with.”

“I want to tell you, first and foremost, that I do take the safety of children seriously, and that the entire existence of our organization now as it stands is for that very purpose,” Bailey said.

Bailey said the group feels it is “helpful and healthy to have one day a year” to promote pride in the city.

“That’s all we ask for,” he said. “Secluded out at Liberty Park, away from everyone, to let people — not just kids — come out and be themselves.”

Bailey acknowledged that he did invite some groups from out of town to attend the event “to perform and share love,” but he pointed out that groups not invited by the Hillsboro Pride organization were also in attendance, including representatives from at least two chapters of a neo-fascist hate group.

“I couldn't even have what I would see as just a big old party where people can be people without what … other countries would call a terrorist organization showing up because members of our community felt so threatened just by the mere existence of queer people,” Bailey said.

Regarding the other citizens’ requests to look into ordinances regulating “adult entertainment” and behavior, Bailey cited various statistics from the Trevor Project on mental health and suicidality for LGBTQ+ individuals, especially youths.

“Nearly two-thirds of LGBTQ+ young people said that they had a worsened mental health due to state and local laws, or potential state and local laws, that banned their existence,” Bailey said. “It is four times more likely, for an individual who identifies as LGBTQ+ under the age of 24, to attempt or think about attempting suicide because of policies, because of lack of conversation, because of lack of exposure. Four times.”

Bailey encouraged council to reach out to him anytime with questions.      

Another Hillsboro Pride board member, Meredith Keister, read the rules for the event, which included “a standard public dress code” and “family-friendly” language.   

“These were published in our Facebook group, on the event page, through our official page and emailed out to all volunteers,” she said.

The rules for appropriate language and behavior were repeated “multiple times throughout the day for everyone,” she added.

Keister also addressed several specific concerns. She said that the inappropriately dressed individual mentioned by Zornes was approached by event organizers and told “to put a shirt on or leave the event.” The condoms discussed by Ogden were provided by the Highland County Health Department and were distributed by adults, to adults, according to Keister.

Another resident in attendance, Laura Pickering-Polstra, said that inviting hate groups to Hillsboro was “the real disgrace.”

“I know lately that it has become popular politically, and for some people personally, to malign, harass and persecute the LGBTQ community, but they deserve to feel safe, even in a place like Hillsboro, which is very conservative,” she said. “Being gay or being trans is not illegal in this country, and gay people and trans people being pedophiles is a myth of the uneducated.”

Although not speaking about the pride event, Rob Sollars, accompanied by Seth Rankin, also addressed council about the parks during the citizens’ comments portion of the meeting. Sollars said his concerns were about their management and the need for a “land ethic” for the area.

“The City of Hillsboro and park committee should become more active participants in managing the park land, and by managing the land, I mean developing a land ethic,” Sollars said. “The idea of the land ethic is simply caring — caring about people, the land, the plants and animals that are on that land, and about strengthening the relationships between them.

“I see the Hillsboro parks have passionate people that work and care for the parks on a daily basis. I also see a lot of potential in the way these parks are managed.”

For example, Sollars said he was “dismayed” by the treatment of the “natural areas” at Liberty Park, “especially the area adjacent to Clear Creek,” harming native plants and animals and allowing for invasive species to spread.

“Areas have been cut back, and nonnative, invasive species have been allowed to regrow,” Sollars said. “Some of them, like poison hemlock, are even a public health concern. But most areas have been left unmanaged, which have allowed for nonnative, invasive plants to come in and outcompete our native species, which are critical for the survival of wildlife. I've even seen native woodland plants sprayed or cut by groundskeepers.”

Sollars also pointed out that the city is spending “a lot of money and effort mowing the areas of the park that are not used by the community,” which could instead be converted to “native prairie” areas only mowed once a year.

“There are multiple programs that are available to obtain funds to do this kind of work,” Sollars said. “Seth and I already have spent a lot of time corresponding via email with a few city officials, and we've not made any headway toward these goals.”

Sollars asked the city to consider implementing “a land ethics board for the public parkland,” also volunteering to serve on the board and to help.

Check back to highlandcountypress.com for more from Thursday’s meeting.