When a community has to cancel a public celebration because police won't guarantee their safety from hate groups, something has gone seriously wrong. That's exactly what happened here in Eugene. Pride organizers called off this year's march after the Eugene Police Department told them officers might not protect marchers from hate group interference — unless they jumped through an extra permitting hoop first. The festival at the Lane Events Center is still happening, but the march is gone. LGBTQ families in this community are left wondering whether their government will show up for them when it counts.
This isn't just a local policing failure. When hate groups can effectively cancel a community event by showing up and threatening people, and law enforcement responds by putting the burden back on the victims, that's a civil rights problem that reaches all the way to Congress. Oregon families deserve to walk down a public street without fear. That right shouldn't depend on whether you filed the right paperwork.
I'm asking you to publicly support strengthening federal hate crime enforcement and push for robust funding for the Department of Justice's Community Relations Service, which exists specifically to help communities navigate exactly these situations. I'd also ask you to go on record — publicly — that peaceful assembly is a constitutional right that law enforcement must protect regardless of who is assembling. Please stand up for LGBTQ Oregonians and make clear that threatening a community into silence is not acceptable in this country.
Please use your voice and your vote to make sure every family in Oregon can participate in public life without fear.
