Marysville, Westerville LGBTQ+ groups rally Pride funds as businesses pull support
The Union County Rainbow Coalition, host of Marysville's Pride Fest, said it has encountered funding challenges as the coalition has spoken out against anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. That advocacy has yielded a drop in support from some local companies, according to organizers Christian Downey-Thompson and Betty Elswick.
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'They've shied away because they're more performative,' Downey-Thompson said. 'They are all about throwing a party, but don't want to do any of the advocacy work that our group does to support the marginalized communities in Marysville. You can't just slap a rainbow on it and call it allyship; you actually have to do the hard work.'
Issues have been ongoing since 2023, when a group named the Union County Faith Family Coalition began targeting drag performances and businesses hosting Pride events, like Walking Distance Brewing. The brewery permanently closed in February and hosted Pride events that were meant to further inclusion for Marysville's LGBTQ+ community.
Members of the Faith Family Coalition began taking to social media during the summer of 2023 to denounce the brewery's drag queen shows, hurling unfounded accusations of pedophilia and grooming. Consequently, some local sponsors withdrew their support when the Rainbow Coalition spoke out in defense of Walking Distance and other LGBTQ-affirming businesses.
'We were told that they didn't want us speaking up against that, they wanted us to be quiet, and they wanted us to continue to have fun,' Elswick said. 'Well, we tried to tell them that this is not how this works. It was a really hard conversation for them and some of them were unwilling to have the conversation.'
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Still, the Rainbow Coalition forged ahead with Marysville Pride Fest, taking place June 14 from 3 to 9 p.m. in Partners Park with vendors, nonprofits, animal sanctuaries, live bands and a comedian. The celebration is in part made possible by several Marysville families who stepped up to replace those local businesses with even larger donations. The coalition was also the recipient of prize money from Folx Health, an online healthcare provider for LGBTQ+ people.
'We've got more genuine giving, people are giving because of us standing up, which has been really nice,' Elswick said. 'It's kind of changed the tone of everything. It's been a positive thing on that front, is that people are giving because they want to do the work. They want us to continue our work and it's a little bit more genuine.'
The Westerville Queer Collective, the group behind Westerville's Pride Festival, has also been the beneficiary of more intentional donating, according to organizer Lee Bradford. Bradford said this June's festival has about the same number of sponsors as last year, even though the collective has needed 'to do a little bit of extra campaigning' in the wake of President Donald Trump's reelection and anti-LGBTQ+ proposals at the Ohio Statehouse.
'As much as I kind of look out into the wider world of hatred and bigotry, I feel like there's a comforting amount of support here,' Bradford said. 'We've been doing a little bit more about reaching out to local businesses and trying to find support those ways.'
The collective grew out of an effort in 2021 to fly a Pride flag outside City Hall, and is hosting Westerville's fifth annual festival from 5 to 8 p.m. on June 7 at the parking lot in front of Birdie Books, a LGBTQ-owned bookstore and longtime supporter of the collective. Bradford said the group has 'become a much larger part of the fabric of Westerville' throughout the past years and has garnered community support.
Earlier this year, Westerville became the 13th Ohio city to ban healthcare professionals in the city from engaging in anti-LGBTQ+ practices known as 'conversion therapy' with minors. The practices falsely claim to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, and have been discredited by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and more.
Bradford said this year's Westerville Pride features more vendors, food trucks and an increased focused on resources from organizations. NV Gay, a nonbinary photographer known for 'This is Trans,' a gallery showcasing diverse identities within the trans community, will also be at the festival to sign their recent book, 'The Queer Allies Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Being an Empowering LGBTQIA+ Ally.'
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'I think the support here is actually way bigger this year than it was last year, everybody's been coming out and saying they're excited for it,' Bradford said. 'It's hard, but pulling it off and watching something that you worked so hard for come into fruition, and you see a big celebration in the middle of town, it's so, so worth it.'
Marysville and Westerville are two of several central Ohio suburbs whose LGBTQ+ organizations have struggled organizing events while fending off anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. Delaware Ohio Pride, the organizers behind the city of Delaware's Pride festival, told NBC4 in March that some local entrepreneurs who previously backed the organization have cut off support and no longer offer their businesses as event space since Trump's reelection.
The Fairfield County Rainbow Alliance faced targeting last September when a group called the Fairfield County Conservatives spoke out in protest of a LGBTQ+ event hosted in downtown Lancaster. The debate culminated in a city council meeting where the conservative group argued the event featured an 'obscene' drag show, but the city's top prosecutor said the performance was legally permissible and protected by the First Amendment.
LGBTQ+ business owners in Lancaster said they saw a boost in sales when their shops were named to a list shared on social media by members of the conservative group. The entrepreneurs said the reverse happened when the group posted the list as part of an alleged boycott against businesses that support the LGBTQ+ community.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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