More than 10,000 people are expected to show their true colors starting Friday at the Capitol in a weekend-long gay pride celebration.
After 15 years of celebrating the annual Michigan Pride LGBT March, Rally & Festival at the Capitol, the governor has planned to recognize June as Gay Pride Month.
Mary Dettloff, a Gov. Jennifer Granholm spokeswoman, will officially issue a proclamation at the festival Saturday. The event celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender awareness.
Michigan Pride spokewoman Sarah Mieras says this is an extraordinary occurrence.
"This is the first time anyone from the governor's office will be present for our activities," Mieras said. "It's great to see these sorts of changes going on."
The annual event is organized by Michigan Pride, an independent non-profit agency that produces statewide pride events. The festival has taken place in Lansing since 1988 when it moved from Detroit to be closer to the Capitol.
"The event entertains and educates both the LGBT community and the greater Lansing community about who gay and lesbian people are and the issues that we face," Mieras said.
Mieras said pride marches occur throughout the country and commemorate the Stonewall Riots. Named after a New York bar, the riots occurred in June 1969 after drag queens in New York protested the harassment they received from police officers. Pride events have been held in June ever since.
Michigan Equality, a group that seeks to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, will join with Michigan Pride to collect 5,000 signatures from participants in favor of LGBT friendly legislation.
"We want to have enough signatures that can reflect the strength of our community," said Penny Gardner, executive assistant for Michigan Equality. "If we could just get half of them to sign in favor of the proposed legislation, it would make a strong statement to lawmakers."
The signatures will be collected in response to the Elliot Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1968. The act was passed by the state Legislature to protect residents from discrimination based on age, gender and religion. Sexual orientation was originally included but was not on the signed bill.
In addition to the march and rally, members of the Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project, a community center based in Ann Arbor, will be sponsoring a commitment ceremony. It will be an opportunity for life partners to obtain a certificate of their commitment to each other.
The certificates represent a momentous occasion for partners, said Glenn Klipp, executive director of Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project.
"It's tangible evidence that the partners can share with others about an historical moment in time when they made this commitment," Klipp said. "This event is very special to them, and these certificates have a great deal of pride associated with them."
The Rev. Fran Mayes, pastor of the Tree of Life Metropolitan Community Church in Ypsilanti, will perform the holy union ceremony with minister Stephen Rassi.
She said anyone who wants to participate is welcome.
"The purpose of the ceremony is to make visible, to make known, the fact that there are hundreds of rights that opposite-sex partners enjoy that same-sex partners are denied," Mayes said.
She said holy matrimony and holy union are considered the same covenant commitment in the Metropolitan Community Church, but the certificates aren't the same as holy matrimony certificates. They have the same requirements, such as dissolution of a prior marriage in order to be deemed valid.
"There is hope that when same-sex marriages become legal, Metropolitan Community Church's holy unions will be grandfathered," she said.
The Lansing Gay Men's Chorus will sing following the commitment ceremony.
TJ Jourian, an LGBT concerns intern at MSU and State News columnist, will give a speech during the rally. The student affairs administration graduate student said she is looking forward to the speech, which will mark her first time at the event.
"My speech will deal with people in the community with multiple identities and multiple issues that they have to deal with," Jourian said. "I also want to address the issue of improving the community as a whole, including LGBT people of color and LGBT people with disabilities, rather than just select groups."
Jon Hoadley, internal vice chairperson for the Alliance of Lesbian, Bi, Gay and Transgender Students at MSU, says the university will have a strong presence at the pride event.
"There will be a resource table that all the queer groups on campus will be staffing to get the word out about what resources are available on campus to support and educate queer and queer-supportive students," Hoadley said.
At least 12 to 15 students will be volunteering at the rally, in addition to about 70 students who will march in the parade, he said.
"The alliance has been around for over 30 years, and we've had a strong presence at Michigan Pride since its inception," Hoadley said. "We really like to march."
Evan Rondeau can be reached at rondeau1@msu.edu.
