Local organizations celebrating pride month

Posted on June 1, 2022
The McLean County Museum of is hanging up flags to celebrate the month. (Photo courtesy: Mclean County Museum of History/ Facebook)

By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – June is pride month, and central Illinois organizations celebrate their freedom.

One of those organizations is the Prairie Pride Coalition (PPC), which is dedicated to implementing full civil rights protections.

“Pride is not just something that happens in Chicago or St. Louis or Indianapolis,” PPC President Dave Bentlin told WJBC’s, Scott Miller. “We’ve got pride festivals happening in Lincoln, Illinois, in Ottowa, Illinois; they are happening all over the state. It’s really a month for us to celebrate our victories and remember those we lost and just raise awareness about our community.”

To remember those lost, the Prairie Pride Coalition is holding a remembrance ceremony on June 11 to remember the lives lost in the Pulse nightclub shooting.

“We are going to have our sixth annual Pulse Nightclub Memorial observance. And that is going to be on the 300 Block of North Main Street in downtown Bloomington. That’s in front of the Bistro.

We work with the city to close off that block. We have 49 individuals who have places where they stand on the streets and hold up signs to represent the 49 lives lost in the shooting.”

In addition, the PPC is celebrating pride month with a pride picnic at the Sugar Grover Nature Center in rural McLean.

The annual picnic takes place Sunday, June 12.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].

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