Home News Loring Park candlelight vigil and dedication to honor the life of Joel Larson

Loring Park candlelight vigil and dedication to honor the life of Joel Larson

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Loring Park candlelight vigil and dedication to honor the life of Joel Larson

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Friends, family, and community members will gather in Loring Park on Saturday, Sept. 12 for a candlelight vigil to remember the life of Joel Larson, a young man who was murdered in that park in 1991.

Larson’s family and friends successfully raised funds last year to have a memorial bench placed in the park. That bench was installed earlier this summer.

“Please join us for a candlelight vigil and bench dedication in honor of Joel Larson,” the event announcement states. “He was a bright and shining star who was taken far too soon in the name of ignorance and hate. Let’s gather in Loring Park, 24 years, 1 month and 12 days after his murder, to celebrate his life and show the world we remember his light.”

For more information on Larson’s death, and more importantly his life, read The Column’s piece from 2014 about his life and the efforts to remember him: Turning anti-gay hate into love with a Loring Park memorial to Joel Larson.

Dedication for the memorial bench begins at 6:30pm with Sen. Scott Dibble serving as keynote speaker followed by a candlelight vigil and a walk along the Loring Greenway beginning at 8pm. Attendees will then celebrate Larson’s life with an after party at Six15 in the Grand Hotel from 9pm to midnight. more information is available at Facebook.

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Andy Birkey has written for a number of Minnesota and national publications. He founded Eleventh Avenue South which ran from 2002-2011, wrote for the Minnesota Independent from 2006-2011, the American Independent from 2010-2013. His writing has appeared in The Advocate, The Star Tribune, The Huffington Post, Salon, Cagle News Service, Twin Cities Daily Planet, TheUptake, Vita.mn and much more. His writing on LGBT issues, the religious right and social justice has won awards including Best Beat Reporting by the Online News Association, Best Series by the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and an honorable mention by the Sex-Positive Journalism awards.