What if You Invited 500 People to Pride and Almost 5,000 Came?
Welcome to Pride in conservative Michigan!
Shawn and Betty Duncan have been married for over a decade, but when they moved to the western Michigan resort town of Grand Haven, they pretended to be sisters and business partners. Shawn told the Associated Press why: “We knew if we wanted our company to thrive, we were going to have to just squash that we were together and married.”
I live about an hour away from the Duncans, and I totally get it. This part of Michigan is very religious, very conservative, and often very hostile to LGBTQ people — at least if you don’t live in a biggish city like Grand Rapids. It’s Pride month here like everywhere else, but Pride events are controversial and rare.
In that respect, Grand Haven stands in for many conservative parts of the U.S. where queer people feel anxious or fearful this year. Here in Michigan we’ve seen more than our fair share of protests and fearmongering. Last year, the Republican state party co-chair spread toxic nonsense about queer teens using litter boxes in a particular school district — and wouldn’t retract even after the very conservative, very Republican district superintendent held a press conference to categorically deny the rumor and ask her to please communicate more responsibly.
