Free Speech Zone – Rumors vs. Facts
FACT: The Center on Colfax and Denver PrideFest care deeply about the safety and well-being of our community. We invest many hours into safety planning and training with our diverse committee, volunteers, and staff to do everything we can to ensure that Denver PrideFest is as safe as possible.
RUMOR: You created a Free Speech Zone this year.
FACT: The Free Speech Zone has been a part of every Denver PrideFest for more than a decade.
RUMOR: You’re inviting bigots into the festival and giving them a designated space to encourage them.
FACT: We are not inviting bigots into the festival. The free speech area at the festival is a tool used by Denver PrideFest and other special events in Denver to manage and contain (to the best of our ability) speech hostile to the LGBTQ+ community. We cannot prevent anyone from exercising their First Amendment rights within the festival grounds, as long as they remain non-violent. However, we can make an effort to restrict where these types of protests occur in order to isolate protesters from our community.
If we do not have a free speech zone to guide protestors to, protestors would (but still can) protest anywhere they would like throughout Civic Center Park making them hard to avoid.
For additional information, please refer to the ACLU’s Know Your Rights on free speech – https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_pdf_file/kyr_protests.pdf
“Counter-demonstrators should not be allowed to physically disrupt the event they are protesting, but they do have the right to be present and to voice their displeasure. Police are permitted to keep two antagonistic groups separated but should allow them to be within the general vicinity of one another.”
RUMOR: Bigots should have to protest outside the festival. Why do you let them in? Why don’t you just kick them out?
FACT: Civic Center Park is a public space owned by the City and County of Denver. We are not allowed to remove people from city grounds who are practicing their constitutional right to free expression. The City and County of Denver has upheld this to The Center on Colfax and Denver Pride.
Please refer to the ACLU’s Know Your Rights on free speech – https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_pdf_file/kyr_protests.pdf
“Generally, all types of expression are constitutionally protected in traditional “public forums” such as streets, sidewalks and parks.”
The Free Speech Zone allows our safety team and security to have an option when de-escalating protestors in Denver PrideFest, offering a separate and monitored area for their freedom of expression without participating in an unlawful activity of “kicking them out”.
RUMOR: The things these protestors say aren’t covered under the First Amendment. It’s hate speech. You’re allowing hate speech at Pride.
FACT: Sadly, hate speech is protected by the First Amendment in most instances. While the rhetoric used by many protestors is hateful, the Supreme Court has previously ruled that in most instances, hate speech cannot lawfully be censored unless it directly incites imminent criminal activity or consists of specific threats of violence targeted against a person or group.
For example, in 1977 the Supreme Court ruled that the state had to protect the free speech rights of the Nazis. Likewise, in the 2010 case Snyder v. Phelps, the Court ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church could not be prevented from protesting at a soldier’s funeral. According to the ruling, the church members’ speech is protected, “notwithstanding the distasteful and repugnant nature of the words.”
Please refer to the ACLU’s Know Your Rights on free speech – https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_pdf_file/kyr_protests.pdf
RUMOR: You put the Free Speech Zone in an area where some of the most vulnerable members of our community gather.
FACT: The illustrated map published online is not to scale. The map may have created a perception that the free speech zone was larger and closer to other areas than it actually is. After our community voiced their concerns, we immediately moved it to another area, still far away from other active areas and community members.
The free speech area at the festival is designated in a little-used area of Civic Center Park, and is at least 120 feet from any activities, so protestors have little impact on other festival attendees. It is also not highly visible to other guests so it defeats the effort of protestors to make a big splash. As a result of its isolated nature and low visibility, many protesters give up quickly and leave.
As a result of the area being within the park, everyone, including protesters, has to go through our gates and go through bag check, helping to ensure that protesters are not armed and enhancing the safety of all.
RUMOR: Who’s paying you for this?
FACT: The Center on Colfax produces Denver PrideFest. We are grateful for the support of our sponsors who allow us to keep the festival free and open to anyone in our community to attend.
RUMOR: You are “f***ing stupid”, “idiots”, “disgusting”, “bigots”, “a disappointment”, “should be ashamed”, etc.
FACT: The Center on Colfax is a nonprofit run by a small but mighty team of LGBTQ+ individuals. We are not perfect, and we work hard to listen to the community we support and do the best with the information we have. We learn every year. Denver Pride is our largest outreach and fundraising event. Beautiful, passionate people that work and volunteer with The Center on Colfax put it together.
Being called awful names is painful after how hard our team works to put on an event for our community.
We do appreciate your feedback about how we can better serve our community. Our team members read our social posts and wish it came without scathing name calling.