MUSKEGON, MI – Pride flags and rainbow clothing stretched across Western Avenue to ring in the Muskegon Pride Festival on Saturday, June 3, with the first-ever Muskegon Pride Parade, filled with local associations and businesses showing alliance with the LGBTQ+ members of their community.
This is only the second annual Pride Festival for Muskegon, but the parade is a new tradition for this year, beginning their performance and vendor-filled festival with a showcase of local drag artists, LGBTQ+ businesses and organizations.
Community member Rachel Strait said it was great to see so many people turn out to support this new addition to Muskegon’s pride festivities, such as churches and an older crowd, seeing diversity she did not expect from their community.
Church organizations like Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation showed out to depict to the community that they are here for people of all identities, creating a larger space in their community for individuals that other churches may not usually recognize.
“With it being in Muskegon, it really just brings together all the different walks of life,” Strait said. “There’s so many different types of people in Muskegon. It’s just bringing everybody together and realizing that there’s more support than you thought there was.”
Community member El Peterson said it was inspirational that there were so many youth members of the LGBTQ+ community at the parade to see that even in their small town, there was support. Peterson said this is hopeful for those children who are more likely to suffer from mental health issues that they are represented here in Muskegon.
The GSA, or Gay Straight Alliances, across Michigan high schools such as Muskegon High School, Ravenna High School and North Muskegon High School were at the parade to show their true colors to their community and be the voice of LGBTQ+ youth across Muskegon County.
“We had a GSA club in my high school, but it was so small and it was so underfunded, so it’s really good to see that people are really trying to keep it up and everything else,” Peterson said. “It makes me excited for the future.”
The Witches of West Michigan also showed their pride during the parade, decked out in pride flags, promoting unity and being spiritual with the Earth and those around you.
Crystal Thomas, member of the Witches of West Michigan, said that it felt so exciting to be in the first Pride Parade, feeling the same energy across the whole festival and community members who showed up.
“The festival in Muskegon is getting so much bigger and so much more fun,” Thomas said. “I am so excited that Muskegon is allowing people to be more open about themselves and others, and really embrace who they really are.”
Thomas said many LGBTQ+ individuals feel pressure from the public or their home to not be completely themselves, so it is important for the community to be able to come to a place where they feel safe to be embraced.
Walking along with the parade-goers or riding in cars like queens, the local drag queens of Dollhouse Productions like Chelsea Queen and Poppy Smic, who walked on stilts along the GSA groups, were part of the parade to showcase the drag queen community in Muskegon.
Trucks and floats decked out in rainbows drove down Western Avenue to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” with the crowd able to dance and be carefree with their identity for the day.
Community member Jaci Boley walked alongside the parade, excited to share their true identity with the community.
Boley shared that when they came out to their family, they were told it was just a phase. Boley said the “phase” has now gone on for a couple years, proving community members need to see a festival like this to embrace who they really are.
“Nowadays, with everything going on, it’s easy to feel so alone by yourself and easy to isolate,” Boley said. “But when you come out here, you’re surrounded by people who have been in your shoes. They’ve been in the same place as you are, so they can really understand you on a deeper level. I feel like it helps you feel less alone.”
Following the parade, the opening ceremony of the festival began with Muskegon’s first openly gay mayor, Ken Johnson, making a speech on how important this festival was not only to him, but the people that he serves on a daily basis.
“Let’s talk about some four-letter words: fear and hate,” Johnson said. “These two words so often go together and feed off one another, sowing division and discrimination. We know the antidote to these two words are a couple other four-letter words: hope and love.
“Let us never lose hope for a better tomorrow, and let us certainly share love, not only to freely love as we please, but to extend love to those whose hatred towards us stems from their own fear and ignorance. Love overcomes hate.”
Johnson also put emphasis on another four-letter word: vote. Johnson talked about the strides the country and their community have made to be more accepting, but also the fear of losing that in the near future with the Supreme Court hanging the threat of voting down gay marriage and equity for LGBTQ+ individuals.
Johnson said with the contributions LGBTQ+ members have made in the Muskegon community, Muskegon has to continue to show love and support to every identity, declaring from the City Commission that June is the LGBTQ+ pride month in the city.
The opening ceremony concluded with words from drag queen Barbie Dior, aka President of the Muskegon Pride Center Jeffrey Pienela, that they hope this festival continues every year for the community to embrace themselves and others around them, and hopes to even add a brick and mortar Pride Center in Muskegon soon.
Across the festival, there were vendors and activities for festival goers to enjoy. City Planner for Muskegon Samantha Pulos, and her daughter Meeko Pulos, got funding to set up dance circles on the street and a speaker for visitors to dance their hearts out with no judgment.
“Everybody thought it was a great idea,” Samantha said. “It was a good opportunity to kind of harness some positive engagement and just kind of shake our booties out here, have fun, and just talk to folks.”
The pride festival kicked off with a dance performance from the Grand Rapids Entertainment Group, with performances from LGBTQ+ DJs at the main stage and drag shows to follow.
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