How Michigan’s LGBTQ community is dealing with increasing threats
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Claire Hardwick, USA TODAY
As a queer person who cares deeply about my community, the LGBTQ+ community, I often think about our physical safety.
It’s unavoidable. In recent months, the U.S. State Department, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security have issued warnings for attendees of Pride events at home and abroad, but the threats are present year-round.
In 2023, the Human Rights Campaign declared a national emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States, citing the passage of laws targeting the community. And according to the FBI’s annual crime report, anti-LGBTQ hate crimes rose sharply in 2022, a 19% increase from 2021.
LGBTQ+ community center directors are responsible for ensuring the safety of guests and staff as they work, play, learn, and find support in their “safe spaces” every day. Yet, within these same safe spaces, LGBTQ+ community centers, there has been an increase in threats and harassment.
A 2022 survey of LGBTQ community centers conducted by CenterLink, an international nonprofit that supports the development of LGBTQ+ centers, found that 71% of centers experienced threats or harassment online and/or offline in the past two years, and that youth programs were disproportionately affected.
Balance between security and accessibility
The executive directors of three LGBTQ+ community centers in Michigan spoke candidly about the increase in threats to their facilities in recent years and the security measures needed to keep the centers open to their communities.
Cheryl Czach is the executive director of Affirmations LGBTQ+ Community Center in downtown Ferndale.
“We’ve definitely beefed up our security measures and we’ve used a number of different tactics,” Czach said. She mentioned safety equipment and procedural training for staff and volunteers. “That’s always the most important thing for us.”
She said it’s difficult because Affirmations has to balance accessibility and psychological safety as well as physical safety. Affirmations is a community center open to all, and Czach wants to avoid putting up any barriers.
At OutFront Kalamazoo, security has been significantly increased since 2022 due to threats to staff and the building. Last year, the decision was made to lock doors at all times and install a camera system. At Kalamazoo Pride, OutFront’s annual pride festival at Arcadia Creek, security has doubled over the past two years — and then doubled again.
Managing Director Tracy Hall is always thinking about safety.
“That and funding are the two things I think about most,” she said. “And I have to say, our safety is number one.”
And in Highland Park, home of the Ruth Ellis Center, executive director Mark Erwin outlined some of the steps taken to ensure the safety of everyone who enters the facilities. The Ruth Ellis Center exists to support LGBTQ+ youth, particularly BIPOC youth, who face barriers related to housing, health and wellness.
“The Ruth Ellis Center has taken the safety of its staff and youth very seriously for many, many years,” Erwin said.
During its first ten years of operation, the centre deliberately did not have any visible signage to prevent attacks and to protect the confidentiality of the young people it cares for.
The center’s locked doors are equipped with a bell and intercom. The center’s Health and Safety Committee meets monthly.
“The safety and well-being of our staff and youth is of paramount importance to us,” Erwin said. When the center was the target of an online attack by a political figure that spread widely on social media, Erwin and his staff worked closely with local FBI officials to ensure extremists would never gain access to their facilities.
Erwin and others see the current political climate as the main cause of the increasing attacks on the queer community.
“I think our community is an easy target and we’re the political punching bag,” Hall said. “You hear it from politicians from the national government down to the local government and that just feeds the trolls.”
Czach condemned anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric spread by “a particular political party” that encourages people to take anti-LGBTQ+ stances or to display them more publicly.
Denise Spivak is executive director of CenterLink. “We worked with the Anti-Violence Project and the Equality Federation to study the impact on safety in places where anti-LGBTQ legislation was proposed or passed and to explore the context,” Spivak said. “It confirmed a lot of what we already knew, but it was still jarring.”
It’s not all bad news. Spivak and her team aren’t just monitoring trends and responding with support for community centers, they’re also being proactive. In addition to the resources available on the website, CenterLink offers things like microgrants for safety improvements at LGBTQ+ centers and regular training for staff.
“Just keep coming back”
While about 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in 2023 and through June 1 of that year, fewer will be passed: 37 by that date compared to 90 in all of 2023.
“That’s obviously 37 too many,” said Tanya Tassi, CenterLink’s director of policy and advocacy.
The bills, CenterLink’s Spivak said, ranged from “Don’t Say Gay” restrictions to bans on transgender sports and transgender health care to censorship of school curricula and barriers to issuing accurate identification.
“The fact is that advocacy matters, that voice is raised, all of that matters,” Tassi said. “And as we see legislation coming down, I believe that will actually increase security in our centers.”
And community center leaders continue to work with the police, but also have a sense that community members remain wary of police interference. (Think of the Stonewall uprising of 1969.)
A member of the FBI media team confirmed that the FBI’s Detroit field office has been providing a booth with information and resources at Pride events in Michigan since at least 2016 and recently issued a press release to raise awareness of security resources for Pride month.
Hall wishes more people on both sides of the aisle would speak up, especially conservatives who may not fully support LGBTQ+ rights but don’t want to see the community harmed. Regardless, she said, “We just keep showing up.”
Czach was of the same opinion.
“I personally think a lot about the idea of being safe in these spaces and the idea that I can’t live in fear,” Czach said. Living in fear, she said, would mean “I’m not going to be who I really am, and I want to be there for my community as well. And that means I have to put that fear aside and live my life and be who I am.”
Ellen Knoppow is a writer who believes in second acts. Her work has appeared in Pride Source/Between The Lines, The Philadelphia Gay News, Our Lives Magazine, and Oakland County Times. In 2022, Ellen received the award for outstanding transgender reporting from NLGJA: The Association for LGBTQ+ Journalists. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we may publish it online and in print.
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