Detroit Black Gay Pride celebrates 15 years

Rafel Moore, 26, among the young LGBT adults helped at Ruth Ellis Center in Highland Park, talks with its executive director, Laura Hughes.

This weekend, Detroit will play host to one of the gay community’s largest Black Pride events in the country. Hotter Than July organizers are celebrating the event’s 15th anniversary, which in past years has grown to about 20,000 people flocking to Palmer Park. The event is a celebration within the gay community, organizers and activists say, of the positive impact lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have had on Detroit and the nation. “Detroit really is one of the jewels in the crown” of Black Pride events, said Earl Fowlkes, president of the Washington, D.C.-based International Federation of Black Prides. “There are some really affirming things happening in Detroit that are very unique,” Fowlkes added, and he was effusive about the 2009 election of the city’s first openly gay elected official, Charles Pugh, to City Council and what that may signal to the African-American LGBT community.

Organizers and others active in the gay community say Detroit’s status within the national LGBT community often goes overlooked in the city, but is acknowledged nationally. The event held at Palmer Park is free to the public and runs from 5 to 8pm on Saturday.

Reported by Naomi R. Patton of the Detroit Free Press 7/23/2010