Quentin Harris (music producer, remixer and DJ, Detroit).Christopher Dyer (politician, Ann Arbor).Mary Elizabeth Clark (activist, Pontiac).David Burtka (actor and chef, Dearborn).Simone Bell (community organizer, Detroit).Notable LGBT people who have resided in the Metro Detroit area include: In 2017, a film festival for queer filmmakers, Trans Stellar Film Festival, was founded. The film festival continued through at least 2016. Hotter Than July has hosted a film festival since 2008 as part of their annual festivities. Īn LGBT film festival, Reel Pride Michigan, ran from 2002 through 2008 in Royal Oak. A collective named the Gay Liberator had formed itself from the Gay Community Center and the Detroit GLF this collective published the Gay Liberator. The newspaper Between The Lines and the website PrideSource, published by Pride Source Media Group, LLC (PSMG), are headquartered in Livonia. Ellis, who was featured in the documentary Living With Pride, was the oldest known black woman who identified as a lesbian until October 2001, when she died. It became a socializing place for black lesbians and gay men, allowing them to avoid heterosexism and racism in their society. Ruth Ellis, a black lesbian, held house parties at her residence, "The Spot". Some police officers in Windsor doing police work crossed the border and entered Detroit gay bars. In 1940s many gay men in Windsor, Ontario, went to Detroit as it had several gay bars, such as "Gay Paris". The "Hotter Than July!" annual LGBT festival, catering to black LGBT people, is held in the park Palmer Park in Detroit. Motor City Pride moved from Royal Oak to Ferndale in 2001, and it was held in Ferndale until 2011, when it moved to Detroit. Motor City Pride is held annually in Detroit. The Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce is located in Detroit and its mission is "to promote and empower our Metropolitan Detroit LGBT, allied business members, non-profit members, corporate partners and their employees through leadership, advocacy and education". SAGE Metro Detroit (formerly the LGBT Older Adult Coalition established in 2010) was established in 2015 "to build awareness and promote change so that LGBT older adults may age with dignity and authenticity". Many of the local universities, including Wayne State University, Eastern Michigan University, and University of Michigan, have on-campus LGBT resource centers.Įquality Michigan (formerly the Triangle Foundation) is a statewide political advocacy organization located in Detroit working towards the LGBT community's social, cultural, political, and economic wellbeing. The Ruth Ellis Center is a non-profit organization located in Highland Park that provides short and long-term residential safe space and support services for runaway, homeless, and at-risk lesbian, gay, bi-attractional, transgender, and questioning youth. The organization hosts a 15,000 square foot community space, art gallery, educational programming, health and wellness programming, cafe, youth center, and a resource desk. Affirmations is Michigan's largest LGBTQ community center and one of the 10 largest LGBTQ community centers in the country. Īffirmations is a community center located in Ferndale. The Gay Liberation Front had a chapter in Detroit. LGBT Detroit (formerly KICK) is an organization that serves LGBT African-Americans. In 2003 the Farbman Group, a real estate company renovating loft apartments in the inner city, began targeting lesbians and gay men in an effort to get them to move into the complexes. He won a city council seat in Ferndale in 1999 and later became Mayor of Ferndale. Covey first ran for a city council in the City of Ferndale in 1995. A law against discriminating against homosexuals was enacted by the City of Ferndale. The middle-class folks came to Ferndale and Pleasant Ridge, as I did." įerndale received the LGBT community because housing prices were higher in Royal Oak and typically LGBT communities move into lower priced neighborhoods which are then revitalized. But all will eventually agree that crime is what dismantled Detroit's opportunity to have a gay renaissance akin to those of San Francisco and New York." Ĭraig Covey, who later became a member of the city council of Ferndale, said that most of the former gay residents of Palmer Park "tended to move up Woodward Avenue and they settled in Ferndale, Royal Oak and Birmingham depending on their economic abilities. Wendy Case of Metro Times said "Ask three different people what happened to Palmer Park and you'll get three different answers. Due to crime occurring around Palmer Park in the 1980s, the LGBT community moved to Ferndale. Around the 1970s the gay community in Detroit was centered in Palmer Park. Before World War II, Downtown Detroit served as the center of the LGBT community.