On Saturday, July 1, We the People-MI celebrated pride month with music, food, and a mural created and contributed by the local community in honor of Pride Month.
“It was a good opportunity to be able to bring together people from Detroit and for all of us to be able to work on something that represents inclusion and equality and love,” said Samantha Mena, Policy and Research Intern.
We the People-MI, whose office is located in Southwest Detroit, is an organization that works towards building long-term infrastructure and fostering long-lasting alliances in their movement to make Michigan a place where everyone thrives and leads full and satisfying lives.
And with their Pride Mural Party, they made progress toward fulfilling their mission right here in Southwest and in the future might make it a part of a tradition to celebrate pride, while also serving as a space for LGBTQ+ folks in our community and other surrounding neighborhoods to be themselves.
“We want to make this a yearly thing. This is just the start of one event of many. We are celebrating pride and we are working on providing that inclusion and that safe space even outside of pride month. We the People stand with the LGBTQ+ community and we want people to know,” said Mena.
Attendees of the event could partake in adding big or small messaging and images as many times as they pleased to the giant canvas hanging in the entrance lounge at the We The People-MI office. The community of attendees all contributed with rainbows, hearts, pride flags and phrases of endearment like: “we’re here, we’re queer” and “we love the gays.”
Throughout history, we have seen LGBTQ+ folks are left out of the equation, almost entirely erased out of history. Which is, simply, an incorrect retelling of history. LGBTQ+ people have always been at the forefront of social justice movements. The Gay Liberation movement wasn’t just one social justice event in history. The work of queer activists and organizers runs deep into the Civil Rights Movement, Disabilities rights movements, Abolitionists movement, and even El Moviemiento –The Chicano Movement.
Acknowledging their existence in a movement and in history can be so valuable to know from generations then and now. Representation, especially in our Latino community is so important and so many historical events have been led by brave and unapologetic LGBTQ+ people. Without them and their efforts and dedication, inclusion and equity in our community would not be where it is now. That even rings true here in Detroit and that is why the We The People-MI Mural Project is so important.
“I wanted to make sure We The People did something that was pride related because our biggest campaign is the Fight for Driver’s License for All, which is one of the biggest immigration justice fights in the state of Michigan right now,” said Yvonne Navarette, Policy Director at We the People. “This fight is being led by a number of queer undocumented organizers, a lot of them from We the People, but from other organizations rooted in Southwest Detroit. For me, I wanted to directly acknowledge the tie between Michigan Fighting for Driver’s License for All is a part of that, queer undocumented history,” she said.
With their Pride Mural Party, We the People created a space that is breaking barriers in Southwest. It provided a safe space to be yourself, explore your creativity, and be reminded that though there is so much happening in the world right now to repeat history and erase the existence of queer people, you are here and free to be who you are.
“In the Latinx community and in the immigrant community, there’s a lot of homophobia and there’s not a lot of space for us to be free and for us to be authentically proud of who we are,” said Navarrete. “I just want to show that there are queer people here and we are not going anywhere and we are a part of making our communities better. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
We the People-MI reminds us that pride is not just one month during the year, but it’s every day, and the more we celebrate that and provide space for folks to be themselves, we are making a movement towards an inclusive Michigan, Detroit, and Southwest community.
To know more about what We The People-MI are doing next and how you can support their movement, be sure to follow them on Instagram @wethepeople_mi
Juanita Zuniga is a graduate of Kalamazoo College with a degree in Anthropology/Sociology and English. She was born and raised in SW Detroit and still resides here today. She is very passionate about her community and hopes to serve her community through writing. Juanita is a Latin history and music enthusiast in her spare time. She is also a Cancer sun, Libra moon, and Cancer Rising.
