June is when the LGBTQ+ community celebrates Pride Month. With the Trump administration in power, Michiana members of that community say they’ve made some changes in this year’s events.
When Donald Trump took office in January, one of his first executive orders directed the federal government to only recognize male or female as genders, and to stop affirming that people can be transgender or binary. It’s just one example of the hostility the LGBTQ+ community has experienced from the administration.
Because of that climate, South Bend’s LGBTQ+ Center this year has opted not to do their All-Age Drag Show, says the nonprofit's board president, Julian Schock.
“We often saw a lot of conflict and push-back from protesters in the community around it," Schock says, "and given the current political space that we’re in now, we didn’t want to do that event for more of security and safety reasons.”
Schock says canceling the event wasn’t easy because visibility is such an important part of Pride, but it just made organizers lean more into making other events great. They’re again gearing up for their biggest event, Pride in the Park, June 21 at Potawatomi Park.
“We already have over 170 vendors registered and signed up for it. When we’ve had previous meetings as a board, that was the number one thing that we valued that needs to happen every year, is we need Pride in the Park.”
