Amid rising threats to Michigan LGBTQ+ centers, working overtime to stay safe

Detroit Free Press | By Ellen Knoppow

Published June 25, 2024

As a queer individual who cares deeply about my community, the LGBTQ+ community, I think about our physical safety often.  

It’s unavoidable. In recent months, the U.S. State Department, FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued advisories for those attending Pride events here and abroad, but the threats are present year-round. 

In 2023, The Human Rights Campaign declared a national emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S., citing the passage of laws that target the community. And anti-LGBTQ hate crimes rose sharply in 2022, a 19% increase over 2021, according to the FBI’s annual crime report.  

Leaders of LGBTQ+ community centers are entrusted with keeping guests and staff safe while they work, play, learn and find support at their “safe spaces,” every day. Yet those same safe spaces, the LGBTQ+ community centers, have seen an increase in threats and harassment.  

A 2022 LGBTQ Community Centers Survey conducted by CenterLink, an international nonprofit that supports the development of LGBTQ+ centers, revealed that 71% of centers experienced threats or harassment over the previous two years, online and/or offline, and that youth programs were disproportionately targeted. 

Balancing safety and accessibility

The executive directors of three LGBTQ+ community centers in Michigan spoke frankly about the uptick in threats to their facilities over the last few years, and the security measures required to stay open to serve their communities.

Cheryl Czach is Executive Director of Affirmations LGBTQ+ Community Center, located in downtown Ferndale. 

“Our security measures have absolutely increased, and we've taken a variety of different tactics,” Czach said. She mentioned security equipment and procedural training for staff and volunteers. “It's top of mind for us all of the time.”  

She said it’s tricky, because Affirmations needs to balance both accessibility and psychological safety with physical safety. Affirmations is a community center open to everyone, and Czach wants to avoid putting up any barriers. 

At OutFront Kalamazoo, security has been significantly enhanced since 2022 as a result of threats to the staff and building. Last year, the decision was made to lock the doors at all times and install a camera system At Kalamazoo Pride, OutFront’s annual Pride festival at Arcadia Creek, security was doubled — then doubled again — over the past two years.  

Executive Director Tracy Hall thinks about safety all the time.

“That and funding are the two things that I think about most often,” she said. “And I would have to say keeping us safe is number one.” 

And in Highland Park, home of Ruth Ellis Center, Executive Director Mark Erwin explained some of the steps taken to ensure the safety of everyone who enters their facilities. Ruth Ellis Center exists to support LGBTQ+ young people, especially BIPOC youth, who are experiencing barriers to housing, health and wellness.

“Ruth Ellis Center has taken safety for staff and youth very seriously for many, many years,” Erwin said.  

For its first 10 years, the center purposely lacked visible signage to avoid being targeted, and to support the confidentiality of the young people they serve. 

The center’s locked doors operate with a buzzer and intercom system. The center's health and safety committee meets monthly.  

“The safety and well-being of our staff and youth is integral to everything that we do,” Erwin said. When the center was the target of an online attack by a political figure that spread widely on social media, Erwin and his staff worked closely with local FBI officials to ensure extremists would never gain access to their space.

Erwin and others point to the current political climate as the root cause of the increased attacks on the queer community.   

“I think our community is an easy target, and we are the political punching bag,” Hall said. “You hear it from leaders from the national government on down to local government, and that just feeds the trolls.”  

Czach called out the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric spread by “a certain political party” that emboldens people to take an anti-LGBTQ+ stance or to be more public about it. 

Denise Spivak is executive director of CenterLink. ”We had worked with the Anti-Violence Project and the Equality Federation to look at the impact on safety in places where anti-LGBTQ legislation had been proposed and or passed and what that correlation was,” Spivak said. “It confirmed a lot of what we already knew, but it was also still jarring.” 

Not all the news is grim. Not only do Spivak and her team monitor trends and respond with assistance for community centers, they are also proactive. Besides resources available on the website, CenterLink offers things like microgrants for security enhancements at LGBTQ+ centers and regular trainings for staff.  

'Just keep showing up'

While approximately 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in 2023 and through June 1 of this year, fewer are passing; 37 as of that date compared to 90 in all of 2023.

"Of course, that's 37 too many," said Tanya Tassi, CenterLink’s director of Policy and Advocacy.

The bills, CenterLink's Spivak said, run the gamut from "Don't Say Gay-type restrictions to trans sports bans, to bans on trans healthcare, to curriculum censorship, to barriers to accurate IDs."

“The fact is the advocacy, the raising of the voice, all of that matters,” Tassi said. “And as we see the legislation decrease, I do think the safety and security will actually be increased with our centers.” 

And community center leaders continue to work with law enforcement, just as they are sensitive to community members who remain wary of police involvement. (Consider the 1969 Stonewall Uprising.)  

An FBI media team member confirmed that the FBI Detroit Field Office has been been providing a table at Pride events in Michigan with information and resources since at least 2016, and recently issued a media release designed to bring awareness to safety resources for Pride Month.  

Hall wishes that more individuals on both sides of the aisle would speak up, especially conservatives who may not fully support LGBTQ+ rights but don’t want to see the community harmed. Regardless, she said, “We just keep showing up."

Czach shared a similar sentiment.  

“For me personally, I think a lot about this idea of being out in these spaces and being safe, and this idea that I cannot live in fear,” Czach said. Living in fear, she said, would mean “I will not be who I am authentically, and I also want to show up for my community. And that means that I must set aside that fear, and live my life, and be who I am.” 

Original link: https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2024/06/25/michigan-lgbtq-centers-threats-rising-safety/74194402007/