* WGN earlier this week…
A legal battle is underway after the City of Chicago denied activists a permit for a protest during the Democratic National Convention taking place in August.
The group said the Chicago Transportation Department denied them a permit to protest in the Loop the Sunday before the start of the convention.
“The city should not stand in our way they should be empowering us to march,” Kristi Keorkunian-Rivers, from Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws and the co-founder of the Chicago Chapter of Stop Trans Genocide, said. […]
“Whether or not we get rejected by this court we will be marching. Our march assembly will be at 5 p.m. at Water Tower Park on Sunday, August 18th. That much we know. What happens beyond that we will see,” Andy Thayer, from Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws and the co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, said.
The attorney representing the group said the city is trying to push organizers to protest in Grant Park, a location they say will diminish their visibility.
* CBS 2…
The group accused “most Democratic politicians” of having allowed reproductive rights that had previously been “enshrined in Roe v. Wade to be eviscerated, ignoring or supporting legislation that made those rights a mirage for millions of people.”
They lost their court battle. The full decision is here.
* From Crain’s…
A Chicago judge has sided with the city government and denied an abortion-rights group’s permit application for a protest along Michigan Avenue during this summer’s Democratic National Convention.
On Feb. 1, an administrative law judge denied an appeal from Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws, a coalition of reproductive and LGBTQ rights groups that is demanding expanded access to abortion in federal law.
Last month, the grassroots organizations filed for a parade permit to march downtown on Michigan Avenue on Aug. 18, the day before the DNC kicks off. The city denied that permit request, arguing the proposed route would interfere with traffic, and suggested an alternative route on Columbus Drive between Roosevelt Road and Jackson Drive. Coalition members balked at the city’s proposal, which they believed gave protesters little visibility to the convention’s delegates, and appealed the decision.
In his decision, Administrative Law Judge Dennis Michael Fleming upheld the city’s argument that the protest would substantially interfere with traffic and that the city lacked a sufficient number of on-duty police officers or other city employees who could regulate traffic, police and protesters.
* The group does appear to have another agenda as well. From a Sun-Times story on the coalition last month…
Abortion rights and LGBTQ+ advocates also expressed frustration with the Democratic Party’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. Tuesday’s news conference follows a rally by Muslim community leaders from across the country in Chicago Saturday urging voters to drop their support for President Joe Biden because of his administration’s refusal to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Keorkunian-Rivers said the Democratic Party will lose the support of trans, queer and abortion rights advocates if their demand for “solid, unwavering reproductive justice“ is not met. She added that legislators have also been silent about Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.
More than 21,900 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.
“The Democratic Party has largely been silent on the rights of trans and queer people, the genocide of Palestinians, the right to access adequate health care, and has done little to nothing about the rise of fascism that plagues our country today,” she said.
Gonna get interesting.
- ZC - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:01 pm:
I confess I have lost all interest in Keorkunian-Rivers as an activist after that last paragraph quote above.
- Almost retired - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:11 pm:
When some people who call themselves advocates don’t get what they want and threaten to not support Joe Biden they increase the likelihood of someone like Trump getting elected. So throwing a tantrum, making threats of action that would only make what they want not happen and even make it worst. It is similiar to Maga when they throw tantrums. Makes me think that they are not very smart.
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:15 pm:
“The Democratic Party has largely been silent on The rights of trans and queer people, the genocide of Palestinians, the right to access adequate health care, and has done little to nothing about the rise of fascism that plagues our country today,”
Taking the kitchen sink approach to protesting
- JS Mill - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:17 pm:
=“The Democratic Party has largely been silent on the rights of trans and queer people, the genocide of Palestinians, the right to access adequate health care, and has done little to nothing about the rise of fascism that plagues our country today,” she said.=
May be go home and let a grownup run the group. It sounds like they are starved for emotionally mature leadership.
- Jocko - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:18 pm:
==The Democratic Party has largely been silent==
What have you done for me lately…other than providing workplace/marriage equality and encouraging personal autonomy?
- Proud Papa Bear - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:24 pm:
I’m thinking the vast majority of trans, queer, and abortion rights advocates have strong memories of the Trump administration and don’t want a repeat.
- HarveyGuy - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:27 pm:
==When some people who call themselves advocates don’t get what they want and threaten to not support Joe Biden they increase the likelihood of someone like Trump getting elected==
Maybe, just maybe… The Dems can do a better job of listening and acting on behalf of the people they would like to represent.
Votes are earned with agreements and action. Not through threats of a boogie man
- 47th Ward - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:31 pm:
Umm, the RNC is in Milwaukee, not Chicago. Maybe these folks should focus their ire on their enemies, not current and potential allies.
- mrp - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:46 pm:
- Jocko - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:18 pm:
==The Democratic Party has largely been silent==
What have you done for me lately…other than providing workplace/marriage equality and encouraging personal autonomy?
====
Are those Republican talking points?
- mrp - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 2:47 pm:
“Free” speech.. jeez.. next thing they’ll want is free lunch
Authoritarian food fight in 3.. 2..
- Just Me 2 - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 3:05 pm:
===The attorney representing the group said the city is trying to push organizers to protest in Grant Park, a location they say will diminish their visibility.===
Why is the city’s biggest park in the middle of downtown less desirable than a city street?
- Wowie - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 3:08 pm:
The word genocide has an actual meaning and throwing it around every time you have a complaint is harmful to Jewish people.
Not that these folx care too much about Jewish people
- Tinman - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 3:49 pm:
It’s going to get more interesting. Some of these groups want to be on the major traffic streets to tie up traffic which gets them more attention. The closer we get to the convention the more we are going to see groups wanting and demanding attention by whatever means .
- Norseman - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 3:55 pm:
JS Mill on target.
The left’s version of MAGA. They demand the delivery of all their desires. If not they’ll burn everything down including those who are sympathetic to their cause.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 4:03 pm:
- The left’s version of MAGA. They demand the delivery of all their desires. -
What an enlightened view of protestors. I’d love to know your thoughts on the civil rights movement.
- JS Mill - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 4:13 pm:
= The Dems can do a better job of listening and acting on behalf of the people they would like to represent.=
Politics is also math. Joe Biden represents people other than the far left and LGBTQIA+ folks.
Right now, Biden sounds like he is listening to my concerns and my count as much as anyone else’s.
- Wowie - Friday, Feb 2, 24 @ 4:13 pm:
@ Excitable Boy
The Civil Rights Movement (broadly speaking) had actionable, specific goals and coordinated well-thought out strategy that was inclusive and not restrictive in order to persuade people.
This ain’t that.