What Does Pride Month Look Like in 2025?

Up North Pride talks June programming, Michigan protections, and federal attacks

By Ren Brabenec | May 31, 2025

The Movement Advancement Project (MAP) ranks Michigan in the top 20 U.S. states for policies supporting LGBTQ+ residents’ lives, experiences, and equality. Michigan is an island in this category because, without going to either the East or West Coast, the only states in the U.S. with better rankings are Colorado, Minnesota, and Illinois.

But that’s on the state level. To get the latest on the broader issues affecting LGBTQ+ residents, we sat down with Up North Pride (UNP) Executive Director Adrienne Brown-Reasner and Board President Aaron Wright.

Right off the bat, Brown-Reasner tells us, “This is our biggest Pride Month since UNP got its start in 2014,” she says. “We’re using Pride Month 2025 to celebrate how far we’ve come, but also to recognize how much work we still have to do.”

Both Brown-Reasner and Wright emphasized that the increasingly full event calendar is not just thanks to the organization’s expansion, but that many of the events UNP is involved in are the result of growing partnerships with other nonprofits, local businesses, and northern Michigan locales that want to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community. Brown-Reasner referenced TART Trails, Elev8, and the State Theatre as examples.

“The goal for Pride Month, and every month, is to be inclusive,” Brown-Reasner added. “We hosted listening sessions in August 2024 to find out what people needed, and we took their requests to heart. We want to create safe spaces that include a wide range of activities so everyone can feel like there’s something for them.”

The Question of Safety

For many queer people in the United States, safe spaces are not guaranteed.

On May 3, a same-sex couple was ordered to leave a Boston hotel after a security guard challenged their use of a bathroom. The couple, both cisgender women, had entered the bathroom and were using separate stalls when a male security guard came in and started banging on the stall doors. The guard commanded one of the women to leave and to prove her gender, insisting she was a man in a women’s bathroom. As the couple departed, they were jeered by other women waiting in line. The incident made national news, prompting concern over the rights of LGBTQ+ people to exist in public spaces.

Brown-Reasner and Wright are concerned that such incidents will become all too common in the months and years to come.

Wright says a shifting legal landscape, combined with discriminatory and dehumanizing rhetoric on the federal level, is why UNP began hosting “Know Your Rights” talks with northern Michigan’s LGBTQ+ community. “We had a sit-down in January of this year, and another one recently with Jay Kaplan of the American Civil Liberties Union,” he says.

Brown-Reasner echoes the sentiment. “UNP is not a political organization, but we stay informed so we can provide resources for our community. I just got back from a trip to Lansing’s Advocacy Day with Equality Michigan to learn about state and federal bills, executive orders, and the like. Things are mostly OK, but not perfect, on the state level. They’re getting much worse on the federal level.”

Wright brings up Michigan’s LGBTQ+ protections by referencing the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) of 1976, which was expanded in 2023 to include protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

But it’s not enough for Michigan to be an island of safety, because even that might change.

Wright and Brown-Reasner take turns listing off federal anti-transgender legislation, discriminatory Executive Orders, state-level bathroom bans, and House Bill 4467, a bill recently introduced to the Michigan Legislature that seeks to bar parents from decision-making regarding gender-affirming care for their children.

“We think we can hold down the fort on the state level, but we’re very concerned about the rising tide of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment on the federal level,” says Wright. “They’re targeting LGBTQ+ communities now, but that’s likely just the first salvo in terms of who’s going to be oppressed. It’s not a matter of ‘who’s next.’ It’s a matter of, ‘when is it me?’”

A Community That Shows Up

From connecting people with resources through their carefully vetted online directory at upnorthpride.com to hosting educational presentations, creating safe spaces, engaging with allies, and promoting visibility, Brown-Reasner says UNP’s mission is to show up for people.

She also emphasizes that while the support UNP has gotten from the broader northern Michigan community has been more than they could have hoped for, it’s expected that not everyone will show their support.

“People who are conflicted about LGBTQ+ have just as much a right to believe what they believe and to express themselves as we do,” she says. “We don’t all have to agree in order to get along. We just want people to survive and exist and have rights. We can have disagreements and still exist in the same space.”

Wright agrees and says the organization’s mission is also about going on the “pacifist’s offensive” by preaching and practicing love and inclusivity.

“The authoritarian playbook is to divide and conquer,” he says. “The Trump Administration and red states are zeroing in on the transgender community, trying to divide the public on this one group as a way to create a wedge between Americans and their LGBTQ+ family members, friends, work colleagues, and neighbors. For our community members and especially our allies, it’s about standing up and protecting people even if you don’t identify in the same way as them. More community connection is the antidote to authoritarianism.”

Wright and Brown-Reasner note the best way to push back against hate and division is to peacefully show up, to come out and rally, march, party, picnic, dance, sing, make art, sit in silence, share space, see a film, attend game night, vote, fundraise, and spend time with members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Executive Orders, Legislative Efforts, and Federal Actions Flagged by UNP

Brown-Reasner and Wright highlighted numerous executive orders, Congressional bills, lawsuits, state-level bills, petitions, anti-LGBTQ+ lobbying, leaked memos, and federal actions UNP is closely following. Just a few include:

The War on DEI: Brown-Reasner is concerned that DOGE-led mass layoffs and efforts to strip DEI policies from federal agencies have created a massive loss in institutional knowledge and a further marginalization of LGBTQ+ Americans.

Slowing HIV Prevention Research: Since January, the federal government has cancelled dozens of grants to study how to prevent new HIV infections and expand access to care.

Dismantling Marriage Equality: Wright is concerned that the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage will be overturned due to the precedent set under the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling.

Targeted Executive Orders: Since assuming office, President Trump has signed multiple executive orders impacting LGBTQ+ rights, including defining sex solely as male or female, restricting gender-affirming care, discouraging schools from educating students on LGBTQ+ issues, and reinstating a ban on transgender military service members.

Photo by Lil Jes Photography