The protests, whether they were against the stay at home orders or BLM, are not at all equivalent to church/ theater/ bar scenarios. For the simple reason that the former is outdoors and the latter in an enclosed space. Furthermore, protesters were typically moving, not sitting in the same spot breathing recycled air for an hour or more.
The protests here in MN were expected to correlate with a huge jump in the infection rate. A week after the BLM protests started, test centers popped up exclusively to test participants and social media has been full of posts by protest groups telling each other to test.
The results so far are a minimal 1.9% positive test rate specifically among BLM protesters. This is surprising but combine the outdoors air circulation with the fact the overwhelming majority here have worn masks and it provides evidence that outdoor activities, at least, combined with a mask present low risk.
Contrast that with the choir rehearsal, a few months ago where more than half the members were infected by one positive case. Other similar cases have arisen since then.
This is why movie theaters, indoor concerts, etc., are in another category of risk when it comes to reopening organizations. Any situation where a large number of people sit in proximity to each other and breathe the same air where there’s not robust circulation to disperse viral shedding. Singing and shouting compound the problem of droplet transmission.