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LGBTQ Community Gathers For Downtown Fort Wayne Rally

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO):  Hundreds of members of the local LGBTQ community gathered on the lawn of the Allen County Courthouse Saturday afternoon for a rally in protest against the various bills currently circulating through the Indiana Statehouse in the on-going Legislative Session.  The “No Hate In Our State” event was organized by Fort Wayne LGBTQ Activist, Thad Geradot and featured several guest speakers to help raise awareness to the issues that the LGBTQ community currently face, particularly with those who are transgender.


LGBTQ Activist, Thad Geradot addresses the crowd.

Dr. Eric Shoemaker, a Fort Wayne Physician commonly provides counseling to youth who are commonly facing questions when it comes to trans issues and believes there are several misconceptions.  “I don’t think people know what gender dysphoria is,” Shoemaker stated, “It is rooted in misunderstanding and fear.”  Shoemaker also said that people as a whole struggle to learn more about transgender issues.  “The biggest misconception is that people are doing it (transgenderism) for the heck of it, but that is so far from the truth,” Shoemaker stated.

Last Monday, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, issed a letter to several “youth gender clinics” questioning the motivations and reasons for the clinics existence.  Rokita’s letter proclaimed that “Doctors, clinics, and hospitals are increasingly prescribing puberty blockers, sex hormones, and even surgeries to minor children without disclosing the known risks,” with one of those risks being sterilization.  Shoemaker says that the statement is false.  “Transgender care is so much more than surgery, so much more than medicine.  It is behavioral health, it is being there for people,” Shoemaker explained, “To limit what transgender care is in just a letter is just impossible and to say those things about it, it’s based in fear, and it’s based in misinformation, and it’s not based in fact.”

LGBTQ inclusiveness is also on the minds of local lawmakers including Democratic Candidate for Fort Wayne City Council At-Large, Stephanie Crandall.  “We hear everyday from businesses that the biggest issue is talent attraction and retention,” Crandall expressed, “We need to make sure that we have a community that can provide workers and that they have the opportunities to thrive here.  We need not do anything to diminish that ability.”


Hundreds gathered on the Allen County Courthouse Lawn Saturday in support.

Several downtown businesses displayed pride flags on Saturday in unison with the event to show their support to the LGBTQ community, a business community that Crandall overall wants to do what she feels is the right thing to do.  “Businesses want to the right thing for their customers, and their community and they want to make sure that they have those workers that can meet their needs.”

Several speakers spoke during the rally including Democratic Indiana State Representative, Phil GiaQuinta.  GiaQuinta serves Indiana House District 80 and presently serves as the House Minority Leader.  GiaQuinta emphasized that Indiana House Democrats as a whole stand in unison and will continue to campaign for the rights of the LGBTQ community to stay protected and to try and combat the bills currently proposed in the statehouse to limit transgender care as a whole.

The legislative session is set to resume on Monday and is scheduled to adjourn on Saturday, April 29th.

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5 comments

Mal March 13, 2023 at 2:32 am

indisna democrats do not stand in unison. Rodney Pol Jr.is transphobic. and has repeatedly refused to stand for trans people seeing us as a political liability. transphobia is a bipartisan issue in Indiana.

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C. Ommon Sense March 13, 2023 at 8:37 am

Hey Mal, no amount of “acceptance”, hormones, or plastic surgery is going to change chromosomes. Young people do not need medical intervention, they need mental health care. To date, no one in the trans community has explained what rights they don’t have, nor how they are being denied rights. The fact is, you want special rights, which necessitate taking rights from someone else. Special rights and forced acceptance will not solve the mentall illness issue these young people are suffering from. The silence from so called womens’ rights advocates is deafening. They fought for Title IX rights for years and now we have men competing against women. Any fool can wake up and identify as the opposite gender or even as a Martian. It does NOT change science. Too many people are afraid of the trans-fascist crowd and afraid of your name calling. It sounds to me like you are hetero-phobic.

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Kevin March 13, 2023 at 1:52 pm

well stated my friend, I believe that we are born male or female based on science and if you believe in God like I do, then we are ordained by God to be male or female. there is a very minute small percentage of people that have an extra X or an extra Y chromosome, and that’s a freak of nature the people aren’t freaks it’s just something that happens where something does not split in the sperm or the egg and you get two from Mom or you get two from Dad. that doesn’t make that person evil doesn’t make them weird doesn’t make them bad it just makes them biologically different. I had a friend that had one of those issues, this person was born with an extra chromosome and I don’t know which one it was was assigned to be a man by his parents became a marine Etc and then is now a female with a very deep voice, and this person lives up in the South Bend area. I don’t remember his or her name, she was a woman when I found her on Facebook as a friend, a nice person but somehow I got different Facebook profiles and I have not spoken to this person for about 2 years or more. you also state that these people want extra special rights or extra constitutional rights and I agree they want something that they shouldn’t have. I believe the Constitution should protect everybody equally, I don’t believe anybody should be discriminated against because they have a different view of themselves sexually or what have you, just don’t shove your stuff on children, and don’t ask me to give you some extra special considerations or rights. I will treat you as a human being I will treat you with respect, and I expect the same out of you towards me. I think these people are aligned with the Democrats and the Democrats align with them because the Democrats now are a group of people who are trying to control other people through legislation or through the courts, or through the police or the military whom they claim to hate and want to defund but whom they want to use to put down others that disagree with them. very much like the fascist and Communists and Nazis did around the world in the last century.

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Slacker06 March 13, 2023 at 7:45 am

Is there ever a “gathering” or even announcement of a gathering of normal heterosexual people? Why do certain people want or need everyone else to know their sex proclivities? Asking for a friend……………..

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proof that Democrats are the party of Child Abuse March 13, 2023 at 7:53 am

“The biggest misconception is that people are doing it (transgenderism) for the heck of it, but that is so far from the truth,” Shoemaker stated.”…..Then why has the “(transgenderism)” population more than tripled in the last 5 years??? That scale of Population growth is not organic.

“Transgender care is so much more than surgery, so much more than medicine. “…NOBDY is trying to limit mental health, ONLY permanent procedures for KIDS….but that’s somehow crazy??? Transgender care DOES include surgeries and medicine and need to be regulated to PROTECT CHIILDREN from Child Abuse.

” “It is rooted in misunderstanding and fear.” “….Is Purely a Political Statement, and a Lazy one at that. NO SANE DOCTOR would every encourage permanent procedures for healthy children.

….proposed in the statehouse to limit transgender care as a whole.” ……FOR KIDS, that’s what Republicans are proposing!!! Democrats are against protecting Children.

How can anyone be so Blind as to not see the harm in having kids permanently modify their Biology?

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