Aurora Pride Sues City Over Over 1st Amendment Violations: ACLU

AURORA, IL — Aurora Pride is suing the city after the group says tensions this summer almost canceled the parade and caused the nonprofit LGBTQ organization to pay nearly $22,000 more in charges than anticipated.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of Aurora Pride Tuesday. The suit seeks an injunction to prevent the City of Aurora from applying the "unconstitutional" Special Events ordinance to Aurora Pride in the future, according to a news release from ACLU. The ordinance defines events, states groups must apply for a permit to host events, and requires organizers to comply with the set rules.

About two weeks before the Aurora Pride Parade was scheduled to happen on June 12, organizers asked Aurora Police Department officers to show up out of uniform and without service weapons and police vehicles. In explaining their reasoning, the group said members of the community "feel uneasy" in the presence of official police vehicles due to "negative experiences," Patch reported.

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, a Republican gubernatorial candidate at the time, spoke out to say he was "extremely distressed and disturbed" that organizers banned uniformed police officers from the parade.

"It is baffling how what is supposed to be an event focused on and celebrating equity, diversity, and inclusion is now choosing to exclude others," Irvin said in May. "Specifically, the law enforcement officers who have supported the pride parade since its inception and who work so diligently to maintain safety and order at the event."

After the mayor pulled out of the parade and declined to include Aurora Pride in the city's annual flag-raising event to commemorate the start of Pride Month, organizers compromised to allow officers to appear in "soft uniform."

Uniformed, Armed Cops Banned From Aurora Pride Parade, Organizers Say

But four days before the parade was to be held, the city revoked Aurora Pride's special events permit, citing the organization's "inability ... to retain the number of law enforcement officers" required to ensure the public's safety at the popular outdoor event.

It took the city two days to reverse course and reinstate the parade's permit. To do so, police staffing the parade received an "unprecedented" triple-time pay incentive, city officials said.

The "resulting havoc," according to ACLU, resulted in "a doubling of the costs of policing the parade," leaving Aurora Pride with a bill of about $43,500 in charges.

The city originally quoted Aurora Pride a bill of about $21,000, according to ACLU.

"Our aim was to create a message of community support and peace for LGBTQ+ people in Aurora," Gwyn Ciesla, president of Aurora Pride, said in a statement. "That meant not including armed, uniformed police officers. When we refused to back down on this point to pressure from politicians, Aurora city officials threatened and revoked our permit. When we still would not relent, they claimed to 'fix' the problem they created, allowing the parade to move forward. But they expected Aurora Pride to foot the bill. And this was all made possible by this flawed ordinance."

The federal lawsuit challenges the special events ordinance, which, according to organizers, allowed Aurora police "who disagreed with Aurora Pride's constitutionally protected message" to exercise a "heckler's veto," described as the government's restriction of speech to prevent the possibility of a violent reaction from listeners.

"The Aurora ordinance is unconstitutional," reads a statement from Rebecca Glenberg, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Illinois, one of the lawyers representing Aurora Pride. "We have repeatedly pointed out to Aurora officials that our constitution does not give the Mayor or the police a veto over whether or not a parade or demonstration goes forward — simply because they do not like the message of the organizers."

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• Uniformed, Armed Cops Banned From Aurora Pride Parade, Organizers Say
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