Organizers planning a protest march outside the Democratic National Convention in August are appealing the city's denial of their permits.
The group of organizers under the banner of Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws had been planning the march for the evening of Aug. 18 to call for national legislation protecting LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights. But the Chicago Department of Transportation rejected the permit application Jan. 16, according to a letter provided to the Windy City Times.
The organizers appealed the city's decision during a hearing Tuesday at the Chicago Administrative Law Hearings Courthouse, 400 W. Superior St., where they argued the rejection was a violation of their first amendment rights. A decision on the appeal will be made later this week.
"One thing I want to make very, very clear is whether or not we get rejected by this court, we will be marching," said Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, one of the groups involved in Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws.
Other groups in the coalition include Chicago for Abortion Rights, Tri State Abortion Action and Stop Trans Genocide.
The protest is meant to raise pressure against the Democratic Party to enshrine LGBTQ+ protections and reproductive rights at the national level, while addressing housing, employment and other inequities, Thayer said.
"It's very important for the people of Chicago and beyond to know why it is important to protest not just against the Republicans, but also against the Democrats," Thayer said. "In my experience, when we've had Democratic administrations, we've gotten at most the bare minimum that they have promised … and the bare minimum is not enough."
The march, scheduled for the day before the Aug. 19-22 convention at the United Center, was timed to raise awareness for these issues at the same time delegates and other political leaders are arriving in Chicago and staying downtown for the event.
Organizers' proposed route for the march begins at Water Tower Park, 180 E. Pearson St., and weaves through downtown to end at 901 S. Michigan Ave., according to their application.
But city officials denied the application claiming the march would "substantially and unnecessarily" interfere with traffic and that the city did not have enough on-duty police officers to staff the protest route, according to the Department of Transportation's rejection letter.
The march can only go on if organizers agree to an alternative protest route through Grant Park along Columbus Drive from Roosevelt Road to Jackson Drive, according to the rejection letter.
Thayer called the alternative route a "dead zone" that would limit the amount of awareness they could raise through their protest.
"Relegating our route to an afterthought parklands march where the foot traffic pales in comparison is frankly embarrassing," said Kristi Keorkunian-Rivers, co-founder of Stop Trans Genocide.
Joe DiCola, a civil rights attorney at First Defense Legal Aid and a member of the National Lawyers Guild Chicago said the city's alternative route "offends the First Amendment" and "sets a regressive tone for the DNC."
The coalition is one of two groups planning protests around the DNC who have had their permit applications rejected, Thayer said. The other group is preparing an appeal and will share more information soon.'"
Thayer compared the city's resistance to their protest plans to efforts to curtail protesters outside the 2012 Nato summit in Chicago during Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration.
"I'm feeling very Rahm Emanuel'd right now. I'm feeling very Richard M. Daley'd right now," Thayer said. "And that's a very sad statement for Mayor [Brandon] Johnson to be repeating … that sorry record."
Representatives from Chicago's Department of Law did not return a request for comment.
