Hailey Colpitts has only lived in Niles for six months but she’s wasting no time getting involved in the community. This Saturday, Colpitts and other organizers with The Niles Pride Committee are throwing the city’s first Pride festival.
Niles has had smaller events in recent years, including a Pride bike ride, but the event the group is planning at Riverfront Park will be Niles’ first festival-type event.
“When we came to Niles, I learned there wasn’t one in Niles and the idea came back at me full force. We need to do this. I can do this. Buchanan is having their first one, Three Rivers is having their first one,” Colpitts said.
And Niles isn’t the only town that will see Pride celebrations for the first time in 2023. Buchanan and Three Rivers in Michigan are both starting up larger events this year. In Indiana, the LGBTQ Center in South Bend is holding its annual festival this weekend, but some smaller communities, like Noble County, now have Pride organizations as well.
Adam Burck, is the executive director of the Buchanan Senior Center, which is hosting Buchanan’s Pride event on June 25. Burck said he first got involved with Pride when research found that minorities, including the LGBTQ community, were more severely affected by the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To combat that isolation, Burck and a group of LGBTQ seniors got together and those sessions eventually led to a Pride event that will feature live music and multiple vendors on the Buchanan Common.
Burck added recent legislation at both the local and state level in Michigan has positively impacted the LGBTQ. This year, the Michigan legislature passed laws adding sexual orientation and gender identity protections to the state’s civil rights act.
“Those are all significant achievements and a big change for the LGBTQ+ population of Michigan,” Burck said.
But not all states have been as supportive on LGBTQ issues. This year, Indiana passed a law banning access to medication and surgeries for transgender youth looking to transition. And that follows a law banning transgender girls from competing in girls sports at schools in the state.
Indiana this session also criminalized libraries that carry literature deemed to be “harmful to minors”though the ACLU has sued to temporarily stop the enforcement of the law. Republican lawmakers in other states have also attempted to ban drag shows.
Against that backdrop, Andrew George said this year’s pride celebrations do take on an added importance. George is one of the organizers for the festival in Three Rivers, but he said the infringement of rights of LGBTQ people all over the country is concerning.
“There are obvious situations going on across the country right now that are affecting LGBTQ lives. That’s something we’ve definitely taken into account. It was a huge part of the motivation that we had going this year that pushed us to make sure that this event was a success,” George said.
Even in Michigan, George recounted that he first thought about organizing a Pride event when a school district in St. Joseph County Michigan attempted to ban rainbow flags from the school.
“Even though we are in Michigan, we are still very rural in Three Rivers and we do have a conservative base of people in our county. But we want to reach out and show the only agenda we’re preaching is one of love and acceptance,” said George.
In Indiana, gay rights groups and celebrations are popping up in increasing numbers. According to H.R. Jung, the executive director of the LGBTQ Center in South Bend, there were only around five Pride organizations in Indiana 15 years ago. Now, there are closer to 35.
“It really points out that LGBTQ people – trans, queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, what have you -- we exist everywhere,” Jung told WVPE earlier this month. “Small towns have Pride celebrations now. Large cities have Pride celebrations. It just really emphasizes that as the attempts to legislate individuals out of public life in Indiana or around the country, we’re still here. We still exist.”
One of the newer Pride organizations in the state is the Noble County where Kim Murphy has already helped organize a few events this year.
“We actually had Noble County Pride entered into one of our county parades for the first time ever,” Murphy said. “And to tell you the truth, there was so much support and positivity from the audience watching the parade. I was astonished.”
Here is a list of Pride events going on around Michiana:
South Bend Pride Festival:
June 17th 11 a.m.-5 p.m.at Potawatomi Park
Niles Pride Festival:
June 17th 7-9 p.m. Riverfront Park
Three Rivers Pride
June 24th noon-9 p.m. Downtown Three Rivers
Buchanan Pride:
June 25th 5-10 p.m. Buchanan Common
