Parasol Patrol hopes for more financial support as demand grows during Pride season

DENVER – The Colorado-based nonprofit Parasol Patrol is asking for the community’s help in raising funds to continue providing services for kids attending LGBTQ+ events around the country.

Founded by Eli Bazan and Pasha Ripley in 2019, Parasol Patrol volunteers use rainbow umbrellas to shield kids, and sometimes adults, from protesters as they enter drag queen story time events and other LGBTQ+ friendly spaces. However, recent legal and health issues have depleted their funding for travel, parasols, and other expenses.

“I'm battling cancer. I'm lucky that I have a pretty good prognosis, but it's still cancer, and so I've had two major surgeries in just over a week and a half under full anesthesia, and it's very uncomfortable, to say the least, very painful. I can't drive, I can't go to a lot of these events,” Ripley said. “It’s very depressing, knowing not only that I'm dealing with these health issues and the pain, physically, of that, but my heart is so much with this community and with kids, and knowing that I can't be out there doing whatever it is I can do just breaks me.”

KMGH photojournalist Anaya Salcedo

For Bazan, a recent car accident stopped him from earning money doing gig work.

“I was actually driving to a doctor’s appointment at the VA in Denver to have my bursitis looked at in my elbows, and I was sideswiped by an 18-wheeler, and our car was totaled,” Bazan said.

The couple said the organization was also forced to take down its social media accounts due to a recent legal issue.

“We had a situation where the director of legislation from a hate group recognized by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League fraudulently claimed that we were using his intellectual property because he had gotten a trademark that was similar to ours, not exactly," Ripley said. "So, he got us taken down off of a lot of social media, Facebook, Instagram, all those, but more importantly, off of a lot of payment processing apps."

Ripley said this caused Parasol Patrol to lose its monthly donors.

“We lost all of those folks and our budget right now, what's in the coffers is probably 30% of what we normally have going into Pride season,” Ripley said.

KMGH photojournalist Anaya Salcedo

While trying to navigate the funding shortfall, Bazan and Ripley have decided to focus their Parasol Patrol efforts on Colorado.

“About two months ago, we made the very hard decision that we would no longer be traveling outside of Colorado for the remainder of the year simply because we didn't have the funds,” Bazan said. “That's heartbreaking.”

When Denver7 first interviewed Ripley and Bazan in 2023, they said sometimes their umbrellas are the only thing standing between kids and the Westboro Baptist Church or self-proclaimed Nazi’s.

“They are focusing on children, on young people, to come out and harass them,” Ripley said.

Parasol Patrol

Bazan said they’re seeing more pushback and protests at LGBTQ+ events across the country and have received requests to start Parasol Patrol chapters in other states.

“We have grown exponentially. There have been so many requests across the nation. We've organized chapters across the country — California, Massachusetts, all over Ohio — and in the process of that, financially, that's a challenge because each chapter has to have extra umbrellas, trauma kits, radios,” Ripley said.

Bazan said some of the most extreme hate he’s experienced was outside a drag queen story time in Wadsworth, Ohio.

“I had never stood across from folks actively carrying swastika flags,” Bazan said. “I really hope that Wadsworth, Ohio, will always be my worst-case scenario, but there are many like that popping up all across the country.”

Ripley and Bazan are not ready to put their colorful shields down yet, but said they need the community’s help to make sure kids and adults are met with rainbows instead of hate. For more information on the Parasol Patrol fundraiser, click here.

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