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Columbus, Indiana: Mike Pence’s Hometown To Host First PRIDE Festival – April 14, 2018

Will Kohler March 30, 2018

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Columbus, Indiana: Mike Pence's Hometown To Host First PRIDE Festival - April 14, 2018

Vice President Mike Pence was born and raised in Columbus, Indiana. And his tenure as governor of that state made national headlines when he signed the controversial anti-LGBT Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law.

Over the past few months, the vice president again made national headlines on this topic — first, in a Twitter exchange with openly gay U.S. figure skater Adam Rippon ahead of the Olympic Games, then as comedian John Oliver trolled him with a children’s book in which the Pence family bunny was imagined in a gay relationship.

In a show of support and solidarity to the LGBT community Mike Pence’s hometown plans to hold its first ever LGBT Pride Festival next month.

Erin Bailey, a high school student in Columbus who came up up with the idea and is helping to organize it told CNN on Wednesday that she wanted to host to the event to “make a change” in her community and in the country.

“I decided to host Columbus Pride Festival because I realized we didn’t have anything quite like it in Columbus,” she said adding that though she believes the Pence is “openly anti-LGBT, it doesn’t mean that the rest of us in his hometown are.”

\Samantha Aulick, a Columbus resident who is also helping Bailey organize the event, said her wife has lived in Columbus for more than 40 years and has never participated in a Pride event there. “We live in a conservative community that may actually be the most liberal in Indiana,” said Aulick, who operates the only LGBT Business Enterprise in their community, Artisan Foodworks. “But it is still Indiana and what created Mike Pence.”

Columbus, Indiana is one of a few towns in the state that has added LGBT protections to city ordinances

The event, which is set to take place April 14, will include educational booths, music, drag performances, rainbow-themed food, pride swag and an art show.

Back2Stonewall will be there covering the event and invites all to come and join to not only to support it and make it a success but to also make a strong political statement