On June 17, a demonstration planned by a coalition of queer and trans people of color in Columbus, Ohio, made national headlines after organizers were arrested. In November, there was a court proceeding for four young activists — Wriply Bennet, Kendall Denton, Ashley Braxton, and DeAndre Antonio Miles-Hercules, known as the Black Pride 4 — who face charges including aggravated robbery, resisting arrest, causing harm to a police officer, failure to comply with a police officer’s order, and disorderly conduct. A trial is set for February 2018.

The action took place during the Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival and Parade, the annual pride celebration in the capital of Ohio, where a small group of activists peacefully disrupted the event to highlight the previous day’s acquittal in the trial of Jeronimo Yanez, the St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer who killed Philando Castile one year prior. In a press release, the organizers wrote that they had planned the demonstration to raise awareness “about the violence against and erasure of black and brown queer and trans people, in particular the lack of space for black and brown people at pride festivals” and to highlight the high number of trans women of color murdered in 2017, which in June had already reached 14.

Troubles in Columbus also fueled their protest, as racial and economic problems plague the city. Though it is considered a hub for the LGBTQ community, Columbus’s people of color face discrimination and inequality. Police violence is rampant, according to a report earlier this year: Since 2013, the Columbus Division of Police has killed 28 people, 21 of whom were black, and over two dozen lawsuits are currently filed against the department, many claiming civil rights violations. The homicide rate among Columbus citizens is also high, and 2017 has been the deadliest year in the city since 1991.

Wriply, a trans woman of color and one of the activists arrested, says that before taking to the street, she witnessed a white lesbian make a derogatory comment about a black man selling T-shirts at the event, a microaggression that further compelled her to take a stand. While planning the demonstration, she considered possible reactions from the crowd of onlookers, who were mostly white gay people. “We step in the middle of their big, happy, white gay pride...and if we’re lucky, maybe they’re gonna beat our asses to the point that the police won’t gonna do anything,” were her thoughts, she tells Teen Vogue.

According to an interview with news source AJ+ about the pride demonstration, Wriply claims that a white woman spit on her after laughing as she was arrested. Video of the demonstration shows Columbus police attempting to remove protestors from the street as the pride parade continues to pass.

Since its start in 1981, Columbus’s Stonewall Pride has become the second largest pride in the Midwest. Within moments of entering the street to block the parade, which was held on a downtown roadway, police moved in to stop the 10 protesters, who were predominantly black. Of those that blocked the roadway, four were arrested and have become known as the Black Pride 4. After the arrests, a Facebook post from the Columbus Division of Police said the “suspects wouldn't obey officers orders to leave the roadway at the parade this morning.”

On June 23, Dr. Tom McCartney, the chairman of the Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival and Parade, made a statement on the organization’s Facebook page that acknowledged that “members of our board were and are deeply concerned by the arrests and charges filed against protestors at this year’s pride parade.” This statement was met with community criticism, and those who believed the pride organizers should’ve done more to protect the Black Pride 4 then disrupted a public conversation hosted by the organization a month after the arrests occurred.