Motor City Pride festivalgoers reflect on experience: "It's all about love"
The second day of Motor City Pride turned downtown Detroit into a vibrant celebration of the LGBTQ+ community on Sunday.
A parade took place with an estimated 65,000 people in attendance.
The Motor City Pride Parade is the biggest in Michigan. It's all about support, unity and inclusion, not just in Detroit, but across the country.
It was a colorful kaleidoscope up and down Griswould Street for the parade.
"Look around. Everyone is here for the same purpose," Andrew Daily, from Northville, Michigan, said. "We all have a common interest, and we just want to be ourselves and we want to have the same rights that everyone else has. And so that's what everyone is here for."
For some parade goers, attending Pride is an annual tradition.
"I come every single year. I have a lot of queer friends, and I just love them so much and I can't imagine not coming and seeing how beautiful it is," Brittany, from Chesterfield, Michigan, said.
For others, they're here for the first time.
"You know, with the current climate, I think it was really important to show up and support and be present," Daily said.
What keeps some people coming back every year?
"I think it's just really important to just kind of be around folks to just celebrate how hard it is to just come out," Ashley Cunningham, from Detroit, said. "Yeah, I think, you know, it's hard, you know, when you're gay and you have a family who may not accept you, you want to feel for [a] community, you still want to feel that family, and so events like this make you feel the love."
The people in the crowd have found community and acceptance.
"The hatred has to go, the hatred has to go. It's all about love and that's all that matters," Gary McFarlane, from Taylor, Michigan, said.
The parade is more than an hour long, but with so much to see and cheer for, there's never a dull moment.
"We're just here, we're together, we're having a good time. I was literally just saying, every year it seems our Pride is getting bigger and bigger. I typically go to, like, Toronto, Chicago, but, like, our Pride, we're well on our way," Cunningham said.
The joy and pride in the LGBTQ+ community are unmistakable in the Motor City.
"Queer people exist. They deserve to be seen, and they deserve to be loved and to show their pride for who they are. If you've never been to Pride, come. I had never been until about five, six years ago, and I will never stop coming," Brittany said.
