GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — The City of Grand Haven is gearing up for its first-ever LGBTQ Pride festival on June 10.
It's an event that received an outpouring of support from the community during the Grand Haven City Council's latest meeting, but has seen opposition as well.
"Anywhere you go with this type of an issue, especially in West Michigan, you're going to have opposition," Grand Haven Pride Co-Chair Jessica Robinson said.
Due to mounting opposition and anti-LGBTQ laws passed in states across the country, the Human Rights Campaign—the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the U.S.—issued its first ever state of emergency for LGBTQ people living in the United States.
Concerns like these on both the local and national levels are why Pride organizers in Grand Haven are making security a priority.
"Not going to lie, [security is] something that we've had to take into consideration very seriously," Robinson said. "Members of our steering committee have struggled with how visible we are to the community."
Robinson said those concerns have been met with action from the festival, in partnership with both local law enforcement as well as independent security officers.
"We have a whole security crew that's coming in," Robinson said. "We'll have up to 15 different security officers that will be present, that will be working at our entrances and exits."
"We've also been working very closely with Grand Haven public safety," Robinson said.
With the measures put in place and conversations had, she said she intends on joining the community and allies at the festival in being completely, unapologetically visible.
"Will there be opposition around? Probably. Will there be protesters? Probably," Robinson said. "All that's going to do is just maybe, like, hurt my feelings a little bit. But it's not going to make me feel unsafe."
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