By Ava West
Although it was one of the hottest days of the year, June 21, thousands of the Grand Rapids community were more than happy to show up for the Grand Rapids Pride Festival, often referred to as GR Pride.
The streets of downtown Grand Rapids were lined with booths and full of people talking, dancing and celebrating the LGBTQ+ community.
Jax Johnson, a dual-enrolled GRCC student starting his first full year at GRCC in the fall, was attending to volunteer with two organizations.
“I’m volunteering for the Grand Rapids Pride Center, specifically at their Youth Booth, because I go to their youth support groups and I’m also here volunteering with the Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America,” he said.
Johnson said that, to him, pride means, “showing up for each other, being in community and supporting each other. Especially in today’s political climate, I think it’s really important for us to organize together and make sure we are communicating. Just knowing each other, I think just like knowing the people in your community is a huge step towards securing your own rights. Just being visible and loud and having a fun time. It means all these things and so much more. It’s hard to describe.”
Johnson gave advice to other queer students at GRCC.
“GRCC students who are queer, make sure you keep advocating for yourself. At board meetings, around your professors, Stand Out is a great organization within GRCC, for queer students. And the majority of the professors I’ve met will stand up for you. And there’s just so many places to reach out for help at GRCC. Keep on building that community and standing up to make GRCC a welcomer place for our community,” he said.
Bethany Joy Winn, a Grand Rapids local, volunteered at a Pride booth, Blessed at Pridefest. This is the fourth year the organization has participated at GR Pride.
“Blessed at Pridefest is just here to affirm the blessedness and belovedness of everybody, without any evangelism, or agenda, or exceptions. Affirming the wholeness and belovedness of everybody,” Winn said. “This booth embodies what pride means to me— where it is just a celebration of the diversity of humanity, and affirming and delighting in the unique expressions of persons.”
Winn addressed her goal to bring faith together with Pride.
“We’re trying to make a point of connecting with different faith communities in the area, so that we come together, rather than having a bunch of different church booths,” she said. “That is more about the dignity and the belovedness of everybody. We have a diverse group of people and a lot of different traditions.”
Winn made a point to credit the originator of the Blessed at Pridefest booth and the menu that was provided, Kimberlee Tomczak Carlson. Carlson made a menu that passerbys could fill out in order to be “blessed.” Allowing everyone to fill out what they believed in, what they wanted healing from, what they wanted forgiveness from and what they wanted to be blessed with.
Raul Hernandez-Guzman works at the LGBTQ+ Commission of Michigan and volunteered at the booth at GR Pride. It is the commission’s second year at GR Pride and is, “a brand new commission that was enacted by an executive order of Governor Whitmer,” according to Hernandez-Guzman.
“It is a state-wide commission, so we are here in Grand Rapids, but the governor appointed 14 people across the state to represent our community,” Hernandez-Guzman said.
Diane Kreger is one of those commissioners. Kreger said that being on the commission, “gives focus and meaning and passion, close to home to me. It is a way to uplift people’s voices. It’s a way to create community for the commissioners, to meet people all over the state with common goal, common sense of purpose.”
Hernandez-Guzman explained how they are getting the word out.
“We invite people to learn more about our commission. They can find us by googling LGBTQ+ Commision of Michigan,” Hernandez-Guzman said. “Because we are looking for allies, I invite people to become allies, to take a survey. There’s a community survey on our website and that’s a survey where the community can tell us their wants, their needs, their desires for a better LGBTQ+ community. Just to get involved we are going to be traveling across the state and looking to connect with people in Michigan.”
Julia Kelly, Jordan Sayfie and Sharon Spumgen work at the Kent County Office of Public Defender and ran a booth at GR Pride.
“We want everybody to know their rights and to support the community,” Sayfie said.
“This is our first year being a county department. We are super happy and we want to be forward facing, community facing, and getting out to the community that we’re here and, that we care about everyone, that everyone knows their rights and that we are here taking care of them.” Chief Public Defender Kelly said. “I am so happy, I have been here before with the ACLU— every year at Pride, you see people smiling and happy and (in) community. I’m so happy to be a part of it. So, we are happy as Public Defender Office to share our rights, share our knowledge and happy to be here.”
Shahryar Oliai is from Grand Rapids, as it is the place he has lived the longest. He works for the Grand Rapids LGBTQ+ Healthcare Consortium and was happy to be helping run the booth at GR Pride.
“We are an organization and a non-profit entity that’s been around for about five years and our focus is eradicating the deficit and inequity in healthcare resources and services that the LGBT community receives. We have had great success with that,” Oliai said.
“(The workers at the Healthcare Consortium) provide opportunities normally for the professional, but also for the patient, to have access to the current resources and connect them together. Because there is actually a fair number of commissions of providers that want to provide care for the LGBT community and these are affirming, caring, loving professionals. So, one of the services we provide is a directory of professionals on our website, where patients or other people can look up and see which one would be appropriate for their needs.”
Oliai also shared other events the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Consortium would be holding.
“But that’s one of many programs, some of the other ones would be journeys to belonging, another one would be coming out event, in October and we’re actually looking for sponsors so other people in the community, who cannot afford to attend such an event, they can attend for free,” Oliai said. “It’s just great fun and the idea is for people to come together and enjoy themselves and without any trouble of attendance.”
Oliai ended, “I think if people paused and paid a little closer attention, they would see that we are all really from the same cloth. We are all from the same creator, whoever that creator is for you.”
GR Pride will be continuing Sunday, June 22, from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. There are food trucks, booths with different merchandise and free handouts and activities. The forecast shows that weather will continue to be very hot and sunny, so those wishing to attend should plan accordingly, such as bringing lots of water and wearing sunscreen.
