Pride With Purpose: Why This Pride Season Matters

This Pride season feels different.

It comes at a time of reflection and reckoning—when LGBTQ+ rights are once again under attack and the very idea of equity is being challenged in our courts, classrooms, and communities. For many, this moment echoes past struggles: the fight for marriage equality, the heartbreak of the AIDS crisis, the defiance of Stonewall, and the legal victories of Lawrence v. Texas, Obergefell v. Hodges, and Bostock v. Clayton County. We’ve been here before. And now, as then, we draw strength, guidance, and purpose from those who came before us—and we move forward with courage, resilience, and Pride.

If this is your first Pride season—or your first time feeling the sting of injustice—you are not alone. You stand on the shoulders of giants: Jim Toy, Ruth Ellis, Billie Edwards, Kathy Kozachenko, Chris Kolb, Rachel Crandall-Crocker. These fierce changemakers from Michigan didn’t just make history—they made space. They walked our streets, opened our doors, and laid the foundation for the communities we continue to build today.

Their legacy lives on in the organizations that serve us year-round: the Jim Toy Community Center, Affirmations, LGBT Detroit, Ruth Ellis Center, Ozone House, Stand With Trans, Equality Michigan, and many others. These spaces have offered food when families would not, shelter when the streets felt safer than home, and joy when the world said we didn’t deserve it.

This Pride season, celebration and protest are one and the same. We dance to honor those who fought before us. We speak out because silence is not an option. We gather—not just to be seen, but to see each other, lift each other, and protect each other.

So yes—bring your flags, your glitter, your signs. But also bring your courage, your vote, your voice. Call your representatives. Support queer youth. Show up for your trans neighbors. Volunteer. Donate. Educate. Resist.

Because Pride with purpose is how we survive—and more importantly, how we thrive.