Medium – Book of Jen

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Illinois Legislators Passed A Law To Prevent Police From Ticketing Students

Illinois legislators on Wednesday passed a law to explicitly prevent police from ticketing and fining students for minor misbehavior at school, ending a practice that harmed students across the state. ProPublica reported.

The new law would apply to all public schools, including charters. It will require school districts, beginning in the 2027-28 school year, to report to the state how often they involve police in student matters each year and to separate the data by race, gender and disability. The state will be required to make the data public.

The legislation comes three years after a ProPublica and Chicago Tribune investigation, “The Price Kids Pay,” revealed that even though Illinois law bans school officials from fining students directly, districts skirted the law by calling on police to issue citations for local ordinances.

“The Price Kids Pay” found that thousands of Illinois students had been ticketed in recent years for adolescent behavior once handled by the principal’s office — things like littering, making loud noises, swearing, fighting or vaping in the bathroom. It also found that Black students were twice as likely to be ticketed at school than their white peers.

From the House floor, Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Democrat from Chicago, thanked the news organizations for exposing the practice and told legislators that the goal of the bill “is to make sure if there is a violation of school code, the school should use their discipline policies” rather than disciplining students through police-issued tickets.

State Sen. Karina Villa, a Democrat from suburban West Chicago and a sponsor of the measure, said in a statement that ticketing students failed to address the reasons for misbehavior. “This bill will once and for all prohibit monetary fines as a form of discipline for Illinois students,” she said.

The legislation would also prevent police from issuing tickets to students for behavior on school transportation or during school-related events of activities.

The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police opposed the legislation. The group said in a statement that while school-based officers should not be responsible for disciplining students, they should have the option to issue citations for criminal conduct as one of “a variety of resolutions.” The group said it’s concerned that not having the opting to issue tickets could lead to students facing arrest and criminal charges instead.

The legislation makes clear that police can arrest students for crimes or violence they commit, but that they cannot ticket students for violating local ordinances prohibiting a range of minor infractions.

That distinction was not clear in previous versions of the legislation, which led to concern that schools would not be able to involve police in serious matters —and was a key reason legislation on ticketing foundered in previous legislative sessions. Students also may still be ordered to pay for lost, stolen or damaged property.

“This bill helps create an environment where students can learn from their mistakes without being unneearrily funneled into the justice system,” said Aimee Galvan, government affairs director with Stand for Children, one of the groups that have advocated for banning municipal tickets as school-based discipline.

The news investigation detailed how students were doubly penalized: when they were punished in school, with detention or a suspension, and then when they were ticketed by police for minor misbehavior. The investigation also revealed how, to resolve the tickets, children were thrown into a legal process designed for adults. Illinois law permits fines of up to $750 for municipal ordanice violations; it’s difficult to fight the charges, and students and families can be sent to collection if they don’t pay.

After the investigation was published, some school districts stopped asking police to ticket students. But the practice continued in many other districts.

In my opinion, bringing police officers into schools is a bad idea. Kids deserve better than being scared that the police might ticket them or take them to jail. There is no good reason for police officers to ticket students in schools. Fear doesn’t help anyone – especially kids. Police officers are doing it wrong, and should never be targeting children.

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Wikimedia Editors Adopt Speedy Deletion Policy For AI Slop Articles

Wikipedia editors just adopted a new policy to help them deal with the slew of AI-generated articles flooding the online encyclopedia. The new policy which gives an administrator the authority to quickly delete an AI -generated article that meets a certain criteria, isn’t only important to Wikipedia, but also an important example for how to deal with the growing AI slop problem from a platform that has so far managed to withstand various forms of enshittification that have plagued the rest of the internet, 4O4 Media reported.

Wikipedia is maintained by a global, collaborative community of volunteer contributors and editors, and part of the reason it remains a reliable source of information is that this community takes a lot of time to discuss, deliberate, and argue about everything that happens on the platform, be it changes to individual articles or the policies that govern how those changes are made.

It is normal for entire Wikipedia articles to be deleted, but the main process for deletion usually requires a week-long discussion phase which Wikipedia’s try to come to a consensus on whether to delete the article.

However, in order to deal with common problems that clearly violate Wikipedia’s policies, Wikipedia also has a “speedy deletion” process, where one person flags an article, an administration checks if it meets certain conditions, and then deletes the article without the discussion period.

At the moment, most articles that Wikipedia editors flag as being AI-generated fall into the latter category because editors can’t be absolutely certain they were AI-generated. IIyas Lebleu, a founding member of WikiProject AI Cleanup and an editor that contributed some critical language in the recently adopted policy on AI generated articles and speedy deletion, said this is why previous proposals on regulating AI generated articles on Wikipedia have struggled.

BBC reported: Wikipedia has lost a legal challenge to the new Online Safety Act rules it says could threaten the human rights and safety of its volunteer editors.

The Wikimedia Foundation – the non-profit which supports the online encyclopedia – wanted a judicial review of the regulations which could mean Wikipedia has to verify the identities of its users.

But it said despite the loss, the judgment “emphasized the responsibility of Ofcom and the UK government to ensure Wikipedia is protected.”

The government told the BBC it welcomed the High Court’s judgement, “which will help us continue to work implementing the Online Safety Act to create a safer online world for everyone.”

Judicial reviews challenge the lawfulness of the way a decision has been made by a public body.

In this case, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia editor tried to challenge the way in which the government decided to make regulations covering which sites should be classed as “Category 1” under the Online Safety Act – the strictest rules sites must follow.

It argued that the rules were logically flawed and too broad, meaning a policy intended to impost extra rules on large social media companies would instead apply to Wikipedia.

In particular the foundation is concerned the extra duties required – if Wikipedia was classed as Category 1 – it would mean it would have to verify the identity of its contributors, undermining privacy their privacy and safety.

The only way to cut the numbers of people in the UK who could access the online encyclopedia by three-quarters, or disable the key functions on the site.

Politico reported: The U.K. High Court dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to parts of the country’s Online Safety Act on Monday, but suggested the nonprofit could have grounds for legal action in the future.

The Wikimedia Foundations, which operates Wikipedia, sought a judicial review of the Online Safety Act’s Categorization Regulations in May, arguing the rules risked subjecting Wikipedia to the most stringent “Category 1” duties intended for social media platforms.

The nonprofit was particularly concerned that under the OSA’s “Category 1” duties it would be forced to verify the identity of users — undermining their privacy — or else allow “potentially malicious” users to block unverified users from changing content, leading to vandalism and disinformation going unchecked.

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Queer Art Faces Widespread Museum Censorship, Curators Say

When artist Amy Sherald canceled her LGBTQ-inclusive Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery show “American Sublime” last month, it was just the latest in a series of censorship episodes involving LGBTQ art at major American museums this year.

In February, Washington, D.C.’s Art Museum of the Americas canceled “Nature’s Wild With Andil Gosine” just weeks before the exhibition’s scheduled opening in March, without saying why. The group show was to have include works inspired by Gosine’s 2021 book “Nature’s Wild: Love, Sex and Law in the Caribbean,” which reflects on art, activism and homosexuality in the region.

The same month, Arizona’s Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art made eleventh-hour edits to a traveling exhibition of women, queer and trans artists, which had been called “transfeminisms,” altering the title of its condensed show to “There are other skies.”

In April, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art postponed a group exhibition of works by LGBTQ African artists titled: “Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art,” which had been scheduled for a late May opening to coincide with WorldPride.

The D.C. museum cited budgetary reasons for postponing the show to 2026, but the timing was hard to miss on the heels of the Trump administration directives to the Smithsonian to remove “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from its museums — as well as the forced and pre-emptive relocation of other WorldPride cultural events after Trump administration firings at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

“There’s something about the combination of art and sexuality that still remains the third rail in the American museum world,” art historian Jonathan D. Katz told NBC News. Katz was the leader curator for “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939,” the vast and successful historical survey of LGBTQ art that ran through early July at Chicago’s Wrightwood 659 Gallery.

Katz traces the roots of modern queer art censorship to the controversial Robert Mapplethorp exhibition “The Perfect Moment,” which — with its provocative imagery, much of it homoerotic — became a cultural lightning rod at the height of the Regan/Bush-era culture wars in 1989-90.

“You’d think that decades later, this would no longer be a live wire, but it still seems to be,” Katz said.

Central to the cancellation of Sherald’s show was her painting “Trans Forming Liberty,” which features a Black trans woman posing as the Statue of Liberty. After she learned that the National Portrait Gallery had “internal concerns” about the painting and planned to replace it or supplement it with a video to provide “both sides” of its trans subject matter, Sherald balked and canceled her entire show, which would have been the museum’s first solo exhibition by a Black contemporary artist.

“While no single person is to blame, it’s clear that institution fear shaped by a broader climate of political hostility towards trans lives played a role.” Sherald, who rose to fame when she painted former First Lady Michelle Obama’s official portrait, said in a statement after the cancellation. “At a time when transgender people are being legislated against, silenced, and endangered across our nation, silence is not an option.”

The National Portrait Gallery is one of eight Smithsonian museums targeted as part of the first phase of an expansive review announced by the Trump administration on Tuesday. The review will analyze all aspects of current and future museum exhibitions to ensure alignment with the president’s March executive order calling for “Restoring Truth And Sanity to American History.”

In a statement to NBC News, the Art Institute of Chicago said its “Painting His World” title is more illustrative of what people will see when they come to the exhibition, which “reflects Cailebott’s full lived experience and daily life, including his personal relationships with the men in his life, like his brother, colleagues, and friends.” The institute added that it’s “common practice” for the same exhibition to have differing titles and wall labels when it’s at different museums.”

The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art – which was not included in the Trump administration’s Phase 1 Review — said in a statement on Tuesday that the postponement of its LGBTQ exhibition was due to private funding challenges and that pushing it back to early 2026 “provide the museum additional time to increase fundraising for the exhibit.”

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AOL Dial-Up Internet Service To End After 34 Years

The Yahoo-owned company announced the shutdown on its support website, stating: “AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet.” MacRumors reported.

While dial-up may seem like ancient history, the service retained a surprisingly persistent user base. As noted by The Verge, a 2019 US census estimated that 265,000 Americans were still relying on dial-up connections. Many of those were likely in rural areas where broadband infrastructure remains limited.

AOL’s dial-up service launched in 1991 and became synonymous with internet access throughout the 1990s, complete with the iconic “You’ve got mail!” greeting and that unforgettable sound.

The Verge reported: AOL dial-up is ending on September 30th according to a statement posted on the company’s website. It makes the end of the service posted on the company’s website. It marks the end of the service that was synonymous with the internet for many since its launch in 1991.

“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” reads the statement by the Yahoo-owned company. “This service will no longer be available in AOL plans. As a result, on September 30, 2025, this service and he associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued.

You might be surprised that the service was still operating. At last count, a 2019 US census estimated that 265,000 people in the United States were still using dial-up internet.

ABC News reported: It’s the end of an era for AOL. After more than 30 years of connecting people to the internet through dial-up, AOL is hanging up its iconic service.

“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” the company’s website states. “This service will no longer be available on AOL plans.”

The change “will not affect any other benefits in your AOL plan,” the company stated. The service and dialer software will be discontinued as of Sept. 30, 2025.

The distinctive high-pitched dial tone, humming and whirring may sound like a distant memory of early internet days for some, especially with the advent of wireless modem connections that have replaced the conventional phone line technology.

American Online, the internet pioneer of the early 1990s, changed its name to AOL in 2006.

In 2017, it shut down the popular instant messaging service AIM, and the company was sold to Apollo Global Management in 2021, become the new Yahoo! Inc.

I am old enough to remember when AOL was brand new. At the time, I was dating a guy who I was absolutely in love with, until he got mean.

One day, my boyfriend’s father brought home a computer, way back in the day when the internet was shiny and new. It took me a while to understand how to use a computer, but I eventually figured it out.

I will always remember that terrible noise the computer made when it started up. It sounded like computerized scream, as if it desperately wanted to get away from the humans who would make it do things.

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George Santos, ex-NY Rep. Who Lied During His Campaign, Reports To Prison

Former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who admitted to lying during his campaign and stealing from his donors, reported to federal prison Friday, Gothamist reported.

Santos will serve his time at FCI Fairton in southern New Jersey, Emery Nelson, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, said.

A judge sentenced the ex-New York lawmaker to more than seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft. The judge also ordered him to pay more than $370,000 in restitution.

Santos, who once represented parts of Queens and Long Island, faced multiple investigations into his conduct. He was formerly expelled from Congress in late 2023 after a House ethics committee found “substantive evidence” of misconduct and illegal activity.

Federal prosecutors said Santos filed fraudulent campaign documents, stole the identities and financial information of people who contributed to his campaign, charged credit cards without permission, wrongfully obtained unemployment insurance and lied to the U.S. House of Representatives. They also said he embezzled donations and spent the money on personal expenses, including designer clothing.

“This plea is not just an admission of guilt,” Santos told reporters outside the courthouse after he pled guilty last year. “It’s an acknowledgment that I need to be held accountable like any other American that breaks the law.”

In the days leading up to his prison term, Santos has repeatedly posted on social media, expressing a mix of sadness, remorse, life advice and defiance. On X, he posted a clip of Frank Sinatra singing “My Way,” a video of a bear walking with its cubs in the woods and multiple condemnations of federal prosecutors.

Donald Murphy, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, declined to share which facility Santos will go to after he arrives, citing safety concerns. He said the Bureau of Prisons makes assignments based on various factors, including the level of supervision the person needs and any necessary security measures to ensure the person’s protection.

Earlier this year, Santos told British media personality Piers Morgan that he was in the process of filling out a clemency application to seek a pardon or senate commutation from President Donald Trump.

“I think no one better than President Trump to know what a weaponized Justice Department looks like, and this is exactly it,” he said. “Seven years and three months for a first-time offender over campaign matters just screams over the top.”

The Hill reported: Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) reported to prison Friday afternoon, officially capping off the New York Republican’s dramatic rise-and-fall in politics that saw him ascend as a GOP trailblazer before plunging to disgrace.

Santos, 37, surrendered to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Fairton in New Jersey, according to a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The news marks just the beginning of an 87-month prison sentence – more than seven years – which he received after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as a part of a plea deal last summer.

He faced 23 federal counts for a number of criminal schemes, including money laundering, theft of public funds, making materially false statements to the House of Representatives and Federal Election Commission (FEC) and falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC.

The beginning of Santo’s prison sentence marked the end — for now — of a story that captivated Washington for months, which began in 2022 with praise for the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent, gained notoriety when news broke that much of his biography was fabricated, grew larger after two criminal indictments and hit an apex when he was expelled from the House, becoming just the sixth lawmaker to ever be ousted from the lower chamber.

Santos recognized his drama-filled tenure in Congress in a social media post published the day before he reported to prison.

“Well, darlings… The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed. From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news what a ride it’s been!” Santos wrote Thursday on the social platform X. “Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried… most days.”

He added, “To my supporters, You made this wild political cabaret worth it. To my critics: Thanks for the free press. I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust eye legends never truly exit.”

USA TODAY reported: Former U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, is expected to surrender to federal custody July 25 to begin serving a prison term after a wire fraud and identity theft conviction.

In April, Santos was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison. Santos was also ordered to pay more than $370,000 in restitution and forfeit another $200,000.

“To my supporters: You made this wild political cabaret worth it,” he wrote. “To my critics: Thanks for the free press. I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust me legends never truly exit.”

Santos came to Washington as a larger than life character who some in the GOP pointed to as the future of the Republican Party. He basked in the new found notoriety even after news reports began unraveling the majority of the life story he used to win votes.

Santos described himself as a successful business owner with experience at prestigious Wall Street firms. In reality, he was struggling financially and never worked for most of the firms he claimed ties to.

He claimed to have been a volleyball star at, and had multiple degrees from, a college he never attended and referred to himself as “a proud American Jew” before insisting that he was “Jew-ish” because his Brazilian mother’s family had a Jewish background. The misinformation led to congressional and criminal investigations into how he had funded his campaign.

Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024 to felony wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. As part of the plea, he admitted to filing false campaign finance reports, charging donor’s credit cards without authorization and fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits, among other acts that began years before he ran for Congress.

A House ethics investigation found he had “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”

Santos represented parts of Queens and Long Island for 11 months.

He was expelled from Congress in a bipartisan vote following the release of the House Ethics report.

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Ex-Rep George Santos Expected To Plead Guilty To Multiple Counts In Fraud Case

photo of several 100 dollar bills by McKenzie Marco on Unsplash

photo of several 100 dollar bills by Mackenzie Marco on Unsplash

Former U.S. Rep. George Santos is expected to plead guilty to multiple counts in his federal fraud case – sources tell Scripps News, according to KSBY.com.

Santos, a Republican from New York, is expected to enter the plea at a court hearing planned for Monday on Long Island, an anonymous source told The Associated Press. The source could not publicly discuss details of the plea.

The court hearing was scheduled for Monday afternoon after prosecutors and Santos’ lawyers jointly requested one on Friday. They also sought and received a delay in certain pre-trial deadlines.

The news comes just weeks before jury selection was set to begin on Sept. 9. Santos has previously pleaded not guilty to a range of financial crimes, including to lying to Congress about his wealth, collecting unemployment benefits while actually working and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses such as designer clothing.

Politico reported that former Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from the House last year amidst a fantastical flood of fraud investigations, is expected to offer guilty pleas Monday as part of a deal to resolve the wide-ranging federal indictment he faces, a person familiar with the case said.

Santos is set to appear Monday afternoon in federal court in eastern Long Island at what U.S. District Court Judge Jonna Seybert set as a pretrial hearing. However, there are plans to use the session to allow the former lawmaker to change his plea, according to a person who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive details of the case that are not yet public.

According to Politico, Santos, 36, was facing 23 federal charges, including wire fraud, lying in Federal Election Commission reports and lying in House financial disclosure. Some of the charges stemmed from his alleged diversion of campaign funds to cover personal expenses including plastic surgery and Botox injections.

Santos was elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District in 2022, but before he was sworn in, reports began to emerge that he fabricated key details in his resume. Allegations of more serious fraud and business misconduct followed, triggering a House Ethics Committee investigation and numerous calls for him to resign.

Santos refused to resign and was expelled last December by a vote of 311 to 114.

NBC News reported the disgraced former lawmaker faces a 23-count superseding indictment in the Eastern District of New York, including charges of wire fraud aggravated identity theft and making materials false statements to the Federal Election Commission.

According to NBC News, the superseding indictment is in addition to a 13-count federal indictment on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds that Santos was hit with in May 2023.

Is anyone surprised by this? Generally speaking, people who money launder, commit fraud, and other sketchy tactics might think they are above the law and can do anything they want to. Looks like George Santos is about to face reality.

Medium

Supreme Court Gets Something Right

Photo of the Supreme Court by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The Supreme Court can sometimes make decisions that can be very confusing for people to understand. Once in a while, the current Supreme Court Justices get things right.

Today’s decision resulted in the Justices rejecting a Republican-led challenge to the Biden Administrations’ communication with social media companies to combat online misinformation on topics related to COVID-19 and the 2020 election (TechCrunch)

Medium

Beware The Dangers Of AI

The letters “AI” in neon on a black background by Igor Omilav on Unsplash

It seems like every corporation wants to use AI. This is not good for the environment, especially since it sucks up water and steals electricity that humans need in order to survive.

The BBC reported: … The world’s data centres are using ever more electricity and the International Energy Alliance (IEA) expects this to double in just four years. Data centres could be using a total of 1,000 terawatts hours annually by 2026. “This demand is roughly the equivalent to the electricity consumption of Japan,” said IEA. Japan has a population of 125 million people.

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Internet Archive Under Attack

Imagine if you went to your local library and found that a vast majority of the books were missing. You seek out a librarian to ask why the shelves are so empty. The librarian responds that the books have been removed because of a lawsuit by a publishing company.

That might sound strange at first. But then, the librarian gives you more information. There was a lawsuit by a big publishing company that won their case. This required the library to begin removing 500,000 books. Those books will, essentially, disappear from this library.

Medium

Happy Pride Month!

A flag with the transgender colors, a brown stripe and a black stripe, and the rainbow flag hangs on a house. Photo by Jack Lucas Smith on Unsplash

Flag with trans colors, a brown and a black stripe, and rainbow colors by Jack Lucas Smith on Unsplash

June 1 is the start of Pride Month. As such, there were many posts by politicians and other famous people who clearly were happy to celebrate Pride Month.

On x.com (formerly Twitter) I found posts by:

Vice President Kamala Harris, who wore a sparkly pride flag over her denim jacket

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who posted a video in which he talked about protecting LGBTQ+ in his state.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who posted an image that said: California Celebrates Pride Month. He wrote: “With the rainbow flag proudly raised over the State Capitol, we stand with LGBTQ+ people, their loved ones, & allies throughout the state. Together, we will continue to demand equal rights for all to create a California for all.”

The White House posted a pastel colored image with the words “Happy Pride Month” on it. “This month and every month, our administration celebrates the extraordinary courage of LGBTQI+ people and proudly stands with them in the fight for equality, justice and inclusion.”

Mark Hamill posted an image “Celebrating Pride Month — we stand with our LGBTQ+” Behind those words in the image are a rainbow ribbon that makes a heart. Mark Hamill wrote: “June will always be #PrideMonth, but we support of LGBTQ brothers and sisters… Always. [rainbow flag emoji]

Sesame Street posted an image made of black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and pink fluff that resembles some muppets colors. They wrote: “Happy #PrideMonth from Sesame Street! Today and every day, we celebrate and uplift the LGBTQIA+ community. Together, let’s build a world where every person and family feels loved and welcomed for who they are.” [row of heart emojis]

NASA posted an image that said “NASA CELEBRATES LGBTQI+ PRIDE MONTH”. They wrote: “As we mark the start of Pride Month, we’re reflecting on how far we’ve come while recognizing the work still to be done. There’s space for everyone — of all genders and orientations — in exploration and discovery.” The image that was posted shows rainbow colors with stars scattered through them.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer posted an image that said “While other states restrict your freedom to be who you are and love who you love, [Michigan] is protecting equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community!” Above the image, she wrote “I want everyone in the LGBTQ+ community to know that I’ve got your back. Here in Michigan, we’ll fight for your freedom to be who you are and work together to create a world where no one lives in fear because of how they identify or who they love.”

US Department of the Interior posted “Happy Pride Month! Every person deserves the freedom to live with dignity, safety, and opportunity, no matter who they love or how they identify. Interior continues our work to share the stories of the LGBTQI+ movement and celebrate their contributions to advancing equality.” There is a photo of several people from the US Department of the Interior, dressed all the same. Some are carrying pride flags, and two people are holding a banner that says “STONEWALL NATIONAL MONUMENT — National Park Service”

Last year, my husband and I went downtown to experience Pride Fest. I hadn’t been to one in a long time, and wanted to go. The location was on the site which includes a large-ish church. There is room for vendors, food sellers, and more, depending on what kind of fest is happening at the time.

When we arrived, a female police officer asked me to let her look through the purse I was carrying and then allowed both of us in.

There were small barricades, weighed down by heavy weights made of metal. This was the first time I saw these heavy weights in front of the small barricades. The purpose was to prevent people from driving their vehicles right through Pride Fest.

Both sides of the location was intentionally blocked off. This allowed for LGBTQI+ people to safely enjoy the festivities. Far across a street that overlooks the space, were a group of people who came with signs that were spouting nonsense about people who are LGBTQI+.

A large crowd had formed inside the Pride Fest, where performers entertained the crowd — including one using a rope on a scaffold that she wound around herself, and another that was a contortionist. We heard from a person that was either on a committee for this or might have been a politician. She talked about things the local government was doing — had done — to make things safer for LGBTQI+ people.

And eventually, the haters who had been pushed back by law enforcement, were drowned out by the entertainment, the woman who made the speech, and all of us clapping.