After seven years of participation, pro-life students were barred from a community parade in Michigan because “issues” were considered inappropriate for such an event.
The group didn’t fit the theme of “cherries, children and fun,” insisted a committee of volunteers who reviewed applications for the National Cherry Festival’s Junior Royale Parade in Traverse City, the local Record-Eagle said.
That came as a surprise to Andrea Becker of Students for Life.
“I was disgusted really,” she said, according to the daily. “We purposefully try to not put the word ‘abortion’ on the sign, and we purposefully tried to avoid the controversy in the first place. They allowed us before and now all of a sudden they don’t.”
The committee making the decision raised its standards this year to ensure participants conform with the National Cherry Festival’s focus for the parade, Tom Kern, the festival’s executive director, told the Record-Eagle
“The festival is about the promotion of cherries and the community; it should not be used as a platform for their issues,” he said. “We aren’t making a statement that these issues are good or bad but that the festival isn’t the place.”
The Traverse City paper said the festival, held July 5-12, does not have a written policy to determine which groups are allowed one of 120 spots in the parade, according to Kern.
A policy is being developed in consultation with attorneys and constitutional law experts, he said.
Students for Life had about 70 members walk the parade route last year with a banner reading “Celebrate life.”
The group’s president, Kevin Stinnet, said he cannot understand why Students for Life was rejected, noting members in the parade typically wear T-shirts with positive slogans and “act really upbeat,” the Record-Eagle said.
Formed in 1995, the group holds an annual pro-life rally and makes presentations promoting abstinence at schools, youth groups and churches.
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