Today we received word that Ohio State Buckeyes coaching staff had decided to withdraw Brutus Buckeye’s participation with COGLAHA in this years Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival and Parade due to the horrific tragedy in Orlando.
While we have gone to great lengths to provide extra uniformed security for our contingent and even uniformed escorts for all of our special guests, we were given a short two sentence email of withdraw this morning.
In the end, the decision is left to those in charge of the Brutus mascot and the mascot themselves. We in no way with to downplay or not acknowledge their concerns. We do not blame them or wish to embarrass them as we know they are just as human as we are, and for some people outside of the GLBT community this tragedy may make things even more confusing. We do not encourage or condone shaming, name calling, or any other form of harassment of the Team Spirit Department or the persons who work tirelessly to bring Brutus to life.
We want to thank all of our friends and staff at the Ohio State University that have worked hard to help set this up. We know they have no control over this, and we want to thank them for clearly expressing that they thought Brutus needed to be there more than ever.
We had staff working round the clock, spending both their personal time and money to help us make history by being the first Pride Parade to host a B1G and Division 1 mascot from a major university.
The rest of of our special guests including Stinger, Crew Cat, Krash and LouSeal have reiterated their commitment to ensuring we stand together.
Despite the withdraw, we will be continuing up until the last minute to bring you more historic firsts for this years Parade. Stay tuned as we are hoping to announce a few more historic guests in the next couple of days including from a certain newly crowned Championship team.
We continue to thank the Ohio State University Hockey staff, the staff at the Schottenstein center, and the Ohio State University Police for all of their support.