Vice President Mike Pence's hometown of Columbus, Indiana will have a Pride Festival for the very first time, organized by a high school student as a senior class project.
Erin Bailey, a bisexual student, told LGBTQ Nation that the notoriously homophobic Vice President "definitely" influenced her decision to organize the celebration.
“I wanted my project to be big because I sat on the panels last year. They all seemed cool, but I wanted to do something that would impact the community in a really big way,” Bailey told LGBTQ Nation. “I thought doing a pride festival would do that”
In a discussion of LGTBQ rights, President Donald Trump reportedly said that Pence "wants to hang them all!"
“I thought since everyone else is like ‘Mike Pence is from here,' typically it is a conservative community but the LGBT community is here too," she explained. "I wanted to show them ‘You’re not alone. There’s others like us.'”
She argued that her fellow students at Columbus Signature Academy are with her, not the Vice President, on the festival.
"Everyone at school is very supportive of my project as well," she noted. "Everyone just kind of thinks he’s terrible. They don’t like his views on LGBT rights and we don’t like his stance on abortion and Planned Parenthood.”
As of press time, 140 people have RSPV'd to attend the Pride Festival on April 14th.
