Kalamazoo resident Janelle King cheers as LBGT rights supporter and state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, D-Salem, announces that she will be running for governor. King was not alone in her cheering, as most of the people in attendance applauded Smith’s announcement.
For Monique Goch, the Michigan Pride Festival is more than a celebration. Goch went to the festival for the first time in 1997 after coming out as a lesbian at age 26. She now serves as the festival’s outreach coordinator.
“It’s very personal to me because I didn’t come out until I was 26,” Goch said. “I really needed that energy. I needed someone to say it’s OK, and now if we do that, look at our response. We have so many allies here.”
The Michigan Pride festival, march, and the Michigan Equality Rally & Commitment Ceremony took place Saturday among a number of events that took place this weekend as part of Michigan Pride 2009. The festival was held at Adado Riverfront Park in Lansing and attracted more than 12,000 people.
The weekend’s events began on Friday with the White Party, a benefit in Old Town for the Lansing Area AIDs Network. On Saturday, Michigan Pride hosted the Michigan Pride festival and a march from the festival to the Capitol. Michigan Equality held the Michigan Equality Rally & Commitment Ceremony on the steps of the Capitol and featured different speakers including Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. The weekend’s events concluded with a Sunday brunch and tea dance.
Longtime attendance
Harold Johnson, a Whitmore Lake, Mich., resident, said this was the first pride festival he had attended in Michigan and it was more friendly than the events he had participated in while living in Oklahoma.
“In Oklahoma, they were blunt about it; they’d throw bibles at us,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he attended the event as a way to help spread knowledge and to demonstrate for political reasons.
“I mean, I’m a gay man,” Johnson said. “Above that I’m an American. I deserve the same rights as everybody else.”
Penny Gardner, an MSU professor of writing, rhetoric and American culture, attended the event as a community organizer for the Coalition for Adoption Rights Equality. She spoke at the Michigan Equality Rally & Commitment Ceremony about adoption rights and said she has attended the event for the last 14 years and has seen the event change and evolve.
“I see more young people that are coming out,” Gardner said. “I see that there’s a little bit more anger, there’s a little bit more want, wanting it now, that we’re not willing to be hidden behind people. I think we’re getting a lot more straight allies.”
Political pride
Phil Volk, a chair for the Michigan Democratic Party’s LGBT and Allies Caucus, said this year’s event was important for his organization because of Proposition 8, a California law that made same-sex marriage illegal.
“We have to keep our base of people enthusiastic and realizing that there’s hope,” Volk said.
Joey Wojciechowski, a festival attendee from Adrian, Mich., said marching and demonstrating for equal rights showed the power and unity of the group.
“If somebody wants to get married, they pay taxes and everything else, they should be allowed to (get married),” she said.
Jeremy Steward, an MSU sociology junior, said although he attended the festival for entertainment reasons and to support its goals. The issue of same-sex marriage was not an important factor for his attendance.
“I’m really not about gay marriage anyway, because obviously marriage (itself) has shown that it’s not a successful union,” Steward said.
Not all that attended the event came to support the gay rights movement, however. Eugene Connel, a part-time street preacher from Lansing, opposed the event and stood outside with large signs with religious-themed messages. Connel, who has demonstrated at the event on and off for the last five to seven years, was upset by the number of young people in attendance.
“I’m trying to turn people to the love of God and the power of God, and away from the power of sin,” Connel said.
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Organizing the event
Candice Risner, the senior chairperson of Michigan Pride, said the festival was aimed to appeal to many different segments of the community.
“I’m big on promoting bringing the whole community together, not just the gay community, because (otherwise) we’re separating and I’m not really for that.” Risner said. “So we actually draw a pretty big straight crowd.”
Risner said although her group organizes many of the day’s event, such as the festival and the march, the actual political rally was organized by Michigan Equality.
Risner said when it came to the festival specifically, she treated it like a music festival, looking for quality talent regardless of sexual orientation.
“This is the day to not be afraid. This is the day you get to hang out with LGBT-friendly family members,” Risner said.
