GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (AP) – Shawn Duncan and his wife, Betty, moved to Grand Haven 14 years ago but kept their relationship under wraps for most of that year, fearing a small-town backlash to a traditionally conservative part of Michigan.
“We knew if we wanted our company to thrive, we would just have to put aside the fact that we were together and married,” said Duncan, who is on a break from work. “We both had the same last name, so it was easy to say we were sisters.”
But last weekend, surrounded by allies and members of the LGBTQ community, the Duncans publicly held hands in their hometown for the first time, at Grand Haven's inaugural Pride festival.
It's time to celebrate, he said, after decades in the closet.
Organizers had hoped the festival would draw at least 500 attendees to the town of 11,000 people, but instead the drag show, dance party and street vendors drew thousands. For many, it was a shocking rebuttal to the growing hostility towards the LGBTQ community seen nationwide as well as in the area.
“Certainly for a few years I had a skewed view that Grand Haven was just a terribly closeted place,” said Ames Goldman, a 22-year-old trans man who lives near the city in Ottawa County. “But today it resurrects that love and that hope that I have for Grand Haven.”
In January, a conservative Christian group known as Ottawa Impact claimed a majority on the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners and made several controversial decisions, including the immediate closure of the Department of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The council also decided not to send funds to support the county's biggest Pride festival, Holland, despite sponsoring the event for two years. Board President Joe Moss refused for months to sign off on a grant awarded to an LGBTQ advocacy group for a youth program. When he signed it, Moss wrote “vi coactus,” Latin for “I have been forced.”
Moss did not respond to questions from The Associated Press.
In May, opponents of the festival who spoke at a Grand Haven City Council meeting — apparently emboldened by county leaders' views — called Pride a celebration of “sexual immorality” and “sin and depravity.”
Grand Haven Pride organizers first met in March to plan a small event inspired by Pride-themed worship events held on the city's waterfront starting in 2021. The Rev. Jared Cramer, of St. John's Episcopal Church, said organized The First Service after we realized Grand Haven didn't have any Pride Month events. He expected a few dozen from his congregation to attend, but Kramer said about 200 people from the wider community showed up that year.
“We just felt a real desire on the part of some businesses and people in Grand Haven for a real full Pride festival,” Cramer told the AP.
In April, the City Council unanimously approved the plan for a Pride festival at the waterfront stadium in downtown Grand Haven, despite local opposition. Over the next two months, the festival nearly doubled its fundraising goal, and the number of vendors had to be limited after they tripled that goal. Over 100 people signed up to volunteer.
Even so, organizers were forced to beef up security in the weeks leading up to the festival. Festival co-chair Jessica Robinson said some organizers have received threats online and in person.
The most common criticism in the heavily religious county was that the festival was offensive to the Christian community. Jeff Elzinga, a pastor at a local church, told a May 15 council meeting that the event was “directly unscriptural” and “harmful to the community.”
Robinson, who is a gay Christian, rejected this case.
“In Ottawa County right now, the loudest voices continue to say that you either have to choose God and Christianity or you have to choose your sexuality. I am living proof to show that this is wrong,” he said.
On Saturday morning, Kramer joined two other pastors for the third annual Pride Worship Service. The crowd, mostly over 50s, wore rainbow-colored clothing as they listened to a sermon about acceptance. Later, Michigan Lt. Col. Garlin Gilchrist II told the growing crowd at the stadium that Pride “is about so much more than today” and that he hoped “expectations will rise for what's possible in Grand Haven.”
As Gilchrist left the stage, he was replaced by music and dancing drag queens. The crowd swelled and seats were sparse less than an hour after the festivities began. Organizers estimate that around 4,000 people took part. There were no note breaks.
For many, it was a day they will never forget – and one they hope to repeat.
“I think we've been quiet for a long time,” Duncan said.
