'We're not going back': LGBTQ+ community, allies march for justice, equality ⋆ The Palm Springs Post

*Niels Kosman, co-founder of Pride Under the Pines, marches Friday night in the Arenas District. (Photo: Orin Shepherd)*

Members of the Palm Springs LGBTQ+ community and its allies gathered Friday night in front of Hunters, the historic nightclub in the Arenas District, for a peaceful demonstration before marching to the Marilyn Monroe statue.

The event was organized by Pride Under the Pines, the group behind the popular annual LGBTQ+ festival in Idyllwild. The goal was to demand justice, equality, and respect for the LGBTQ+ community under the new Trump Administration.

“We all kind of thought in the past couple years that we were all safe and we were heading in a good place, and unfortunately, everything is going backwards,” said Pride Under the Pines co-founder Jeremy Taylor. “We need to let our voices be heard.”

Chants of “We’re not going back” and “Love is love” echoed through the Arenas District as demonstrators, dressed in rainbow capes and solidarity-themed shirts, held signs reading “Human rights for all” and “We will not be erased.”

Among them were Taylor’s mother, Lisa Moulton, 62, and her partner, Mimi Neilson, 70 — both no strangers to marching for their rights.

“We’re here to let everyone know that we have a right to be lesbian, gay, transgender, anything,” said Moulton.

“It’s just so sad,” Neilson added. “I feel like I’m living back in the ’60s. So hopefully, we make a little bit of a difference.”

Michael McDonald, 66, who has lived in Palm Springs for five years and married his partner two years ago, said he attended the march out of fear that his right to stay married could be taken away.

“I am terrified,” he said. “Terrified that our rights are going to be taken away, that our marriage is going to get dissolved. That seems to be the plan with this administration… And I’m really, really disappointed in the Democrats, how they have not spoken up, they’re silent. So we have to do something, we have to come out, we have to speak, we have to march.”

Not everyone at the event was a Coachella Valley resident. D. Mira, a member of the LGBTQ+ community from Mexico, was visiting Palm Springs for the weekend and made it a priority to join a demonstration while in town.

Demonstrators gathered outside Hunters in The Arenas District Friday before heading to the Marilyn Monroe statue near Downtown Park. They were hoping to get the message across that the LGBTQ+ community will not back down to threats made by the new presidential administration.

“So instead of having my normal show on Netflix, I prioritized coming here because this is more important. This is vital,” he said. “It feels nice. It’s nice to be here because I see it as my duty. I think we need to kind of go back to protesting more when it comes to gay pride events, not only partying and celebrating.”

There were also many LGBTQ+ allies in attendance, including Debi Ditomaso, who is about to turn 70 and said she has been marching for far too many years.

“I’m scared to death for not only my gay friends, my trans friends, my Black friends, my brown friends, my women friends… I mean, I’m a straight single woman, and I’m scared for me,” she said.

The night ended with a march to the Marilyn Monroe statue, where demonstrators gathered to hear a speech from Niels Kosman, co-founder of Pride Under the Pines. He thanked participants for their presence and noted that this would be the first of many demonstrations.

“There’s a lot of protests happening already, and Palm Springs wasn’t the first,” he said, adding that he was surprised but grateful for the support from other communities in the Coachella Valley.

“We should be the leaders in this fight and not falling behind. And as we continue to do this, hopefully the numbers will grow, and then we get more people to show up as well. I was impressed, actually, tonight, so it was really good. The energy was good.”