Downtown event set for June 28
By Journal Times staff | Posted: Saturday, June 20, 2009 12:00 am
RACINE - The social concerns committee at Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church has scheduled a gay rights march through Downtown next Sunday.
The march from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 28 will be held on the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall riots. On June 28, 1969, demonstrators violently opposed a police raid on a New York bar that catered to gays, the first of several days of protests often mentioned as the start of the American gay rights movement.
The Racine march will begin on the steps of Olympia Brown, 625 College Ave. Stops are planned at various Downtown locations where speakers will touch on the economic, political, family and religious implications of gay rights.
Scheduled speakers include Norm Cloutier, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside; retired psychologist John Chantry; Racine Dominican Sister Ann Pratt; the Rev. Michael Mueller of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Caledonia; Bruce Joffe, executive director of the LGBT Center of Southeast Wisconsin, and parent Kathleen Sexton. Music is also planned.
Organizers said it's intended as a general expression of solidarity among gay and heterosexual residents, rather than a push for specific legislation. The Rev. Tony Larsen, minister at Olympia Brown, said it is the first such march in Racine he can remember.
The public is invited to attend the march, which will be held rain or shine. For information, call Olympia Brown at (262) 634-0659.