Great Lakes Bay Pride is expanding its Pride Month celebrations this year, bringing a record number of events to Bay, Midland, Saginaw and Isabella counties, alongside an emphasis on community visibility amid rising national tensions around LGBTQ2S+ rights.
This year’s regional pride festival, traditionally held in Bay City, will move to Jolt Credit Union Event Park in Saginaw on Saturday, June 28. The festival will include food trucks, live music, a kids’ activity zone and more than 70 vendors. An 18+ drag show will follow across the street at the Dow Event Center Red Room.
Scott Ellis, executive director of Great Lakes Bay Pride, said the move to Saginaw reflects the organization’s regional mission.
“After six events over eight years, it was time to … move to another part of the region because we are a regional organization,” he said. “We’re really looking forward to bringing it to the Saginaw community this year.”
Ellis said the move reflects the group’s commitment to visibility in rural areas.
“We have to acknowledge that the Great Lakes Bay Region … is still primarily a rural community that covers a really broad geographic area,” he said. “Everybody is so disconnected and don’t always have those opportunities to meet up in person and participate in different activities.”
Month-long programming
The festivities began June 1 with a pride communion service hosted by Bay City’s Episcopal churches and featuring the Harmony Diversity Choir.
Other events include:
- Mount Pleasant Pride Festival, June 7 at Broadway Park, with an after-party drag show at Soaring Eagle Casino.
- Pride Night at the Loons, June 12 at Dow Diamond in Midland, co-hosted by Dow’s GLAD employee resource group.
- Pride Month Tea Dance, June 15 at Drydock Beer Garden in Bay City.
- POUND for Pride, June 16 in Midland, a donation-based fitness class.
Pride yard signs are also available through a regional pickup campaign.
Ellis said pride night at the Loons will feature community tables hosted by local organizations, including Great Lakes Bay PFLAG, the Midland Inclusion Alliance and Michigan Health Endowment Fund.
“We’re looking forward to a fantastic night at Dow Diamond watching baseball,” he said.
Pride in today's political climate
Ellis said Pride Month holds even greater urgency this year amid ongoing political rhetoric and legislation targeting LGBTQ+ rights, particularly for transgender and nonbinary individuals.
“I think that the rhetoric at the federal level is extremely alarming because it is so intentionally targeted at the most vulnerable parts of an already vulnerable community,” he said. “It is from day one of the current administration. It happened on day one. They were intentionally targeted. They've continued to be targeted ever since.”
“We’re honestly making it bigger and better than we’ve done before, and we're not going anywhere."Scott Ellis, executive director Great Lakes Bay Pride
So far this year, more than 900 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced across the U.S., the highest number in history, according to an independent analysis from Trans Legislation Tracker.
The vast majority of the legislation specifically targets transgender people, with proposed laws restricting gender-affirming care, IDs, bathroom access and legal recognition of trans identities.
Ellis said the regional events are a way to counter that.
“Pride Month for us… is 12 months a year,” he said.
Since Ellis began coordinating the events in 2017, the organization’s June programming has grown from two events to nine. Additional partners, like Hoyt Library in Saginaw, are also hosting LGBTQ2S+ programming throughout the month.
