July 4th protest planned in Brevard after Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade
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While many in Brevard have prepared for 4th of July weekend with plans of hot dogs, pool parties and fireworks, three young people look forward to spending their holiday outside the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Justice Center in Viera, protesting for freedom for all.
Jacob Gelman, 18, Addisyn Mayer, 9, and Chelsea Partridge, 29, organized the protest following the Supreme Court’s decision last week to overturn Roe v. Wade, ruling that the right to end a pregnancy wasn’t within the United States Constitution.
With the ruling, abortion has been banned in seven states, temporarily banned in two others and could be banned or limited in more. And with Justic Clarence Thomas inviting challenges to other rulings that legalized gay marriage and gave access to contraceptives, some fear Roe v. Wade was just the first ruling to be overturned.
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“I see Roe v. Wade and all of these Supreme Court rulings as the beginning of a potentially much larger and scarier development on the right and in the United States,” Gelman said, adding that he’s concerned about further issues such as election integrity with presidential elections and LGBTQ rights.
Gelman, who has been involved with the Space Coast Equality Coalition — a group advocating for LGBTQ rights in Brevard — first brought the idea of the protest up to Partridge, who he knew through the coalition.
They reached out to Addisyn, who has been involved in local and national activism since she was 3, including most recently speaking at the Melbourne March for Our Lives rally in protest of gun violence, and the three of them worked to plan the protest.
Partridge said she hopes to help represent young people in America and show others how political issues affect them.
“We’re seeing so many different ways that our freedoms are being stripped away, and we want to say as really a collective of youth, that this is not OK, and we see what’s going on in this country,” she said. “We’re not too young to understand it. We see it, we understand it and we’re not happy about it.”
For Addisyn, who has been involved in activism since she was 3, she worries about how the ruling and other recent legislation will impact her and her friends.
“I want to protect my rights to my body,” she said. She added that she’s concerned about her transgender friend being affected by Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critiques.
The three, who will be joined by Space Coast Pride and Colectiva Queer — both local groups serving the LGBTQ commmunity — chose July 4th as the day to hold the protest because of the holiday’s meaning.
“It feels wrong to celebrate on the 4th of July this year when the 4th of July is supposed to symbolize America living up to all these promises about freedom and rights and it’s just not delivering,” Gelman said. “It’s going backwards by decades, and that’s terrifying, and so doing anything but protesting this 4th of July just didn’t feel right.”
The protest will begin at 1 p.m. and continue until 4 p.m. with sign waving and speeches. Partway through the protest, those in attendance will lie down beside the reflecting pond outside the government buildings while holding banners and signs. This is what is known as a die-in – a protesting tactic where protestors lie down to appear dead.
Gelman said the symbolism of death was powerful to him and part of why he decided to incorporate the die-in into the protest.
“That symbolism represents the amount of things that we’re up for losing – the death of bodily autonomy, the death of democracy, the death of gay marriage, the death of all of these things that we all hold so dear, and just how terrifying it is that it feels so close that all these things might be gone,” he said.
Partridge added that seeing bodies lying down would also create an image of more literal deaths.
“I think it helps also symbolize what we are actually symbolizing with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. People will die from these laws,” she said. “It’s not just with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, with the Don’t Say Gay Bill and other bills that harm our LGBTQ students in particular, they’re already at higher risk of suicide, and we’re putting vulnerable people at risk. We’re putting particularly marginalized communities, people of color, lower income people at risk, because at the end of the day, wealthy people will still be able to get abortions and move to places where their rights are being recognized.”
The group said the protest is also an opportunity to come together to gain a sense of community and to try to make a difference, no matter how small.
“Sometimes I think the people that enact these terrible things, write these terrible opinions – sometimes I think …. They want you to feel hopeless,” Partridge said. “I disagree with that philosophy and want young people to know there is a community, they can make a difference, they might not see it right away, but every act against something unjust will move the needle however incrementally.”
Finch Walker is a Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: July 4th Roe v. Wade protest planned in Brevard for abortion rights
