Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series. 
 
BATTLE CREEK, MI — The word is getting out that Battle Creek’s Pride Festival is the place to be in July.
 
Vendors and organizations hoping to snag a spot at Leila Arboretum, the site of the festival on Saturday, didn’t waste any time staking their claim, says Deana Spencer, President of Battle Creek Pride.
 
“They were all filled by the first of May,” Spencer says. “We moved some stuff around and had a waitlist. It did surprise me. We’ve never filled up that fast. We have 80 vendors this year.”
 
This is an increase from last year’s roster of 73 vendors.
 
“I think people had a lot of fun last year,” Spencer says. “Once people come and see how much fun it is and how much it’s grown over the last couple of years, they want to come back.”
 
Since 2016, the first year that Pride Month was celebrated in July with a festival, attendance has grown steadily. The month of June has been officially designated as Pride Month, but leadership with Battle Creek Pride say they have chosen to hold their celebration in July, so they can participate in Pride events in cities that celebrate in June.
 
Holding Pride festivities in July allows members of the Battle Creek community and other surrounding areas to support and attend Pride events in other cities in June and cap it off in July with BC Pride’s celebrations.
 
“It’s hard for people to attend these events at the same time,” Spencer says. “It’s like they have to catch their breath and go to another event.”
 
The city’s Pride celebration begins today with an LGBT Q & A, a queer trivia game show format that features contestants including Battle Creek Police Chief Shannon Bagley, Pastor Janet Wilson with Christ United Methodist Church, and Chiezan Tomczyk a monk with SokukoJi Buddhist Temple Monastery and Karma House. Sponsored by New Story Community Books, the event takes place from 7-8 p.m. at the Miller Stone Building, 77 Capital Avenue NE.
 
On Friday, July 19  the Pride Parade will wind its way through the city’s downtown area from 7-8 p.m. The parade’s honorary Grand Marshal is Matt Downing, who passed away on February 6. Spencer says he was a tireless supporter of the city’s LGBTQ + community and founded the first Pride center in 2000 which closed in 2002.
 
The parade will be followed by a family-friendly drag show in front of Café Rica. Sodas and other non-alcoholic drinks will be served.
 
Following the Pride Festival on Saturday, a Candlelight Vigil will be held at the BC Pride Resource Center at 104 Calhoun Street beginning at 8:30 p.m. Spencer says this is an opportunity to come together to remember members of the LGBTQ + community.
 
“That is the price that is paid for these celebrations. We want to remember trans people and trans people of color who are murdered every day in this country,” she says. “We can’t forget how they were treated like trash and thrown away. We can’t forget.”
 
However, a conservative element has created a playbook called Project 2025 that could have severe implications for the country’s LGBTQ + population. Former President Donald Trump, who’s running this year to become president once again, has been targeting this population before the inception of Project 2025, according to advocates.
 
Since launching his campaign, Trump has “targeted LGBTQ people, transgender people. He's attacked gender-affirming care for minors, as well as their ability to play in sports,” says Laura Barron-Lopez, a reporter for the PBS Newshour.
 
And, she says, Trump plans quick action if elected.
 
“On day one,” she quoted him as saying, "I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children.”
 
Efforts like this have given Spencer many sleepless nights.
 
“I’m very concerned about Project 2025 and what that will look like for us and the danger that puts us all in. I’m concerned for people attending events because this gives hate the freedom to hate,” she says. “People feel how they feel and do what they do. It gives them freedom to be harsher and meaner and spew more vitriol and I don’t know what that will look like for us. If the highest person in the country can do that, so can everyone else.”
 
 
Creating safe spaces in a volatile political climate
 
“I think given the state of the world and the permissions that hate has given in this day and age it unfortunately creates unsafe spaces at home, work, and out in the public eye,” Spencer says. “Spaces like the festival offer safety to be who you are even if it’s just for one day, there’s a lot of fun to be had. We strive to make sure ours is family-friendly and PG 13 so families can feel comfortable bringing their kids.”
 
Saturday's festival is being hosted by Chi Chi LaRue, a disc jockey and drag queen, and co-hosted by Vanessa Voyant. It takes place from noon-8 p.m. Admission is $5 per car.
 
In keeping with the focus to make it a family-friendly event, the Meijer Kid Zone, an area specifically for children, is expanding this year to include a Petting Zoo that will be done by Eaton Rapids-based Over the Rainbow Zootopia. They also will be leading games, a corn kernel sensory pool, and crafts tables. sponsored by Meijer, the first-ever sponsor of activities for children at the festival, Spencer says.
 
Adult attendees also will find the new and different with the expansion of a Beer Garden operated by Territorial Brewing and a change to the location of the Afterglow Party which begins after the festival ends at 8 p.m. Last year’s Afterglow was hampered by rain.
 
Spencer says this year’s event will take place under a pavilion located at the top of a hill at the Arboretum. The Afterglow sponsored by Club Vortex from Kalamazoo will include music and special lighting.  There also will be several vendors and a few food trucks. The event is open to people 18 years of age and older and tickets are $15 per person, with a portion of the proceeds coming back to BC Pride.
  
Each of the events that are part of Battle Creek’s Pride Week is designed to let people learn more about the LGBTQ + community, Spencer says.
 
“The people that want to learn about it will and the people that don’t, won’t. I think people have this idea that everything we do is of a sexual nature like sexual perversion and being predators and those things are not accurate. People think the same things about the trans community. We are regular people going to work, paying our bills, and spending time with our families. Our lives are about as exciting as everyone else’s.”
 
Too many times, she says, people lump in recruitment and grooming into their misperceptions.
 
“It’s hard,” Spencer says of being gay or trans. “I wouldn’t wish that on anybody and we don’t advocate for kids to be gay or transgender. That is a choice they have to make for themselves. It’s really hard when we can’t be our authentic selves. There are difficulties just by default that will follow these kids. Employers will look at them differently, and their families will be divided in many cases. It’s hard and I don’t wish that on anyone.”
 
While Pride Week gives all members of the city’s LGBTQ + opportunities to recognize and celebrate who they are, it is an annual event with a definite start and finish. The work of BC Pride, however, is year-round.
 
Spencer encourages everyone, no matter how they identify from a gender perspective, to visit the Pride Resource Center to gain a better understanding of the city’s gay and trans community.
 
“We are your friends, neighbors and colleagues,” she says. “We contribute to our community in many positive and impactful ways and we are here to stay.”