The committee for the National Cherry Festival located in Traverse City, Michigan, revoked its approval of a pro-life teen group to march in the Cherry Festival Community Royale parade less than 24 hours before the parade began, citing a “clerical error” to explain the group’s removal.
The Grand Traverse Area Teens for Life is a youth chapter for the Grand Traverse Area Right to Life, which is a part of the statewide organization Right to Life of Michigan. The teens have been marching in the Cherry Festival parade for years, and they had received confirmation of their approval to walk weeks before last Thursday’s parade.
According to Right to Life of Michigan, the festival’s executive director, Kat Paye, was receiving threatening messages concerning the teens’ participation in the parade. The messages were what prompted Paye to remove the teens from the event late on Wednesday night.
“We are appalled that our next generation is being denied the chance to join their town in the annual Cherry Festival Parade, all in the name of intimidation and harassment and now a supposed clerical error,” said Emily Hollabaugh, director of Grand Traverse Area Right to Life in a July 6 press release:
Our students look forward to peacefully walking with their community just as every other group who was approved gets the right to do so. We are proud of our students for being willing to outwardly march for life and we will continue to support them.
According to UpNorthLive, Paye claimed: “Our rules prevent us from allowing social or political entities from marching in our parade. We are not endorsing nor condoning the organization or their objectives; we are simply following our own policy and rules.”
ACTION ALERT: Contact the National Cherry Festival to complain.
Regardless of this policy being strictly applied to the Community Royale parade, another Cherry Festival Parade on July 8 will feature Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and other government representatives.
State Sen. John Damoose, who also founded and co-chairs the Michigan legislative Pro-Life Caucus, defended the teens and expressed his concern about their removal from the parade.
“The Community Royale Parade and the National Cherry Festival are supposed to just be fun,” Damoose said:
The Traverse City Teens for Life were excited to be part of the festivities. These kids worked hard and made big plans for the parade with entertainment and custom t-shirts. Then, at the last minute – more than 5 weeks after being approved – they were canceled because of political pressure. Once again, grown up problems and politics are ruining things for our kids.
ACTION ALERT: Contact the National Cherry Festival to complain.
LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
