Ohio State University Pulls Brutus Buckeye From Pride Parade and Festival Citing Safety Concerns

Brutus Buckeye will not be attending the Columbus Pride Parade and Festival this weekend due to safety concerns related to the the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 dead and 53 injured.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the Columbus Ohio Gay Lesbian Ally Hockey Association announced 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.

"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 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."

A couple hours later, the COGLAHA posted again on their Facebook page hoping to clarify some things regarding homophobia and the Ohio State University:

"Our statement regarding the withdrawal of Brutus from the Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival and Parade seems to have started to go viral and we have had many news sources contacting us.

We wish to make it clear that by all indications this is not due to homophobia or any way to be exclusionary. The Ohio State University has been a leading partner in supporting us throughout the year, especially during our Pride Nights with Ohio State Men's Hockey.

Multiple members of staff at tOSU, at every level, have clearly expressed that they believe Brutus not only should be there, but NEEDED to be there. We fully acknowledge the coaching staffs priority to be the safety of their student and student athletes.

We absolutely do not encourage insinuations, emails, or phone calls to staff at tOSU suggesting homophobia or name calling or shaming. This is totally the opposite of our mission to provide an open welcoming place for hockey fans of every skill, gender, sexual orientation, race, knowledge, and religion."

[Image Source: Wikipedia photo from brett.t.burch]