Shooting motivates festival participants
Detroit’s 44th annual Motor City Pride Festival resumed Sunday with a parade, but under the shadow of a massacre at an Orlando nightclub popular with the gay community.
Detroit Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Woody said there is no “direct threat” against the city, and noted that the police department “always operates in a state of constant readiness.”
He said he was confident that the Motor City Pride Festival and other events around the city today are “staffed sufficiently.”
The massacre, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, took place at Pulse Orlando, a gay club just south of downtown. Dozens were killed and wounded.
The Motor City Pride Fest was expected to attract tens of thousands to Detroit’s Hart Plaza and Riverwalk during its two day run, Saturday and Sunday, with more than 200 entertainers.
Charlotte Moss of Waterford said the shootings in Orlando devastated her and motivated her even more to attend the festival Sunday and show her pride.
This year’s Motor City Pride theme is “Uniting for Equality” and comes as bathroom inspec- tion bills have been introduced in the Michigan Legislature. Also, the state Board of Education’s effort to adopt voluntary guidance on creating safe schools for LGBTQ students has come under attack.
Organizers said Motor City Pride will provide Michigan’s LGBTQ community with an opportunity to demonstrate solidarity. “Motor City Pride is a celebration of the strength and diversity of Michigan’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community that is second to none,” said Equality Michigan Board Chair Dave Wait in a statement.
“Michigan’s LGBTQ community has never been more united or more determined to achieve full equality than it is today,” said Equality Michigan Executive Director Stephanie White. “Motor City Pride will showcase that resolve and demonstrate clearly that this community will not sit idly by while a small, but vocal group of extreme legislators in Lansing attack our community.”