Community Pride, MI

10/15/2026

10/15/2026

Anita Bryant was speaking to reporters about her campaign against gay people when a gay man interrupted her with a banana cream pie to the face. The cameras caught the whole thing.

It was on this day, October 14, 1977, in Des Moines, Iowa when Thom Higgins, a 27-year-old gay rights activist from Minneapolis, had come to protest the singer and orange juice spokeswoman who was using her celebrity to take away his rights.

Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign had already helped repeal protections against discrimination in housing and employment in Florida’s Dade County. She portrayed gay adults as a threat to children, claiming homosexuals needed to recruit children to survive. After winning in Florida, she took her campaign across the country.

With cream covering her face, Bryant quipped, “At least it’s a fruit pie.” Then she and her husband began praying for Higgins to be “delivered” from being gay, and then she broke into tears. Asked what he had accomplished, Higgins told reporters: “We have another bigot with a sticky face.”

The backlash to Bryant’s campaign helped wreck the career that had given her a platform. Sponsors dropped her. Concert bookings dried up. Her Florida orange juice contract was never renewed. Attempts to revive her entertainment career failed—all of this followed by bankruptcies and unpaid debts.

Anita died on December 16, 2024, at 84, widowed after her second husband’s death earlier that year. Her days as a mainstream star were decades behind her, and her obituaries led with her opposition to gay rights—and her fall from social grace.

The pie is still remembered today. The event highlighted an openly gay man publicly confronting someone who had successfully made other gay people’s lives harder. And nearly fifty years later, we’re still sharing the photograph of what Thom Higgins brought to her press conference.

10/12/2026

Today (12 October) marks 28 years since Matthew Shepard died after a brutal homophobic attack.

Shepard was a 21-year-old student, born 1 December 1976, at the University of Wyoming when he was brutalised by two young men he met in a dive bar in Laramie, Wyoming, on 6 October 1998.

They offered to give him a ride home, but drove him to a remote rural area where they beat him into a coma and tied him to a barbed wire prairie fence. Then they stole his shoes before abandoning him in near-freezing conditions.

Shepard was found 18 hours later by a cyclist who at first mistook him for a scarecrow. His injuries were too severe for doctors to operate, and he never woke up after losing consciousness in that cold field in Wyoming. He died in hospital six days later.

Shepard’s killers, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, couldn’t be prosecuted for any homophobic motive because federal hate crime laws only encompassed a person’s race, colour, religion or national origin.

McKinney’s lawyers also tried to invoke the “gay panic” defence, arguing he had only intended to rob him but Shepard had made him fly into a rage by touching his leg.

The judge dismissed this shocking legal strategy, and both killers are now serving two consecutive life terms for kidnapping and murder.

Shepard’s parents, Judy and Dennis, refused to accept the flaws in the US legal system. Mobilised by their son’s death, they both became LGBTQ+ activists, and in December 1998 they established the Matthew Shepard Foundation in his name.

In the decade following Shepard’s death, Judy and Dennis lobbied for better legal protections for LGBT+ people. Finally, in October 2009, after a lengthy process in congress, the then-US president Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This act - also a response to the murder of James Byrd Jr, a black man killed by two white supremacists - extended America’s hate crime laws to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

📷 Investigation Discovery

10/10/2026

On October 5, Westshore Aware announced their 2026 non-profit award recipients, and we are proud to be recognized again this year, alongside so many incredible organizations doing great work in the Saugatuck-Douglas area.

The grants and sponsorships we receive go right back into making our community events and programs possible.

Thank you West Shore Aware!
❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙🩷

10/10/2026

OKTOBERFEST IS TODAY!
12:00 - 5:00 pm
Beery Field, Downtown Douglas

Saugatuck-Douglas Community PRIDE proudly presents Oktoberfest 2026. This favorite annual community tradition is TODAY and includes:

🥨Live music from authentic German Band, Ein Prosit and DJ John from Thumpbox Music!

🍺Traditional Bavarian dancing from Saugatuck's very own Dance Asylum!

🥨 Bavarian beverages for purchase including w**e from Modales Winery and beers from Saugatuck Brewing!

🍺 Authentic Bavarian Food for purchase, including brats, sauerkraut and pretzels!

🥨Annual events including the Tapping of the Keg and the Keg Toss (with exciting prizes!)

Admission is $10. Please note there are no cash transactions at this event and unfortunately, pets are not permitted inside the gated event area.

Downtown Douglas is the place to be today! The 50th Annual Fall Gallery Stroll will also be in full swing so stop by after you Oktoberfest!

We hope to see you there! Prost! 🥨 🍺





**ery

10/07/2026

OKTOBERFEST IS THIS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10!
12:00 - 5:00 pm
Beery Field, Downtown Douglas

Saugatuck-Douglas Community PRIDE proudly presents Oktoberfest 2026. This annual community tradition promises to be bigger than ever, so get ready to enjoy this Fall-tastic event THIS SATURDAY!

This annual crowd favorite event includes:

🥨Live music from authentic German Band, Ein Prosit and DJ John from Thumpbox Music!

🍺Traditional Bavarian dancing from Saugatuck's very own Dance Asylum!

🥨 Bavarian beverages for purchase including w**e from Modales Winery and beers from Saugatuck Brewing!

🍺 Authentic Bavarian Food for purchase, including brats, sauerkraut and pretzels!

🥨Annual events including the Tapping of the Keg and the Keg Toss (with exciting prizes!)

Admission is $10. Please note there are no cash transactions at this event and unfortunately, pets are not permitted inside the gated event area.

Downtown Douglas is the place to be this Satuday! The 50th Annual Fall Gallery Stroll will also be in full swing so stop by after you Oktoberfest!

We hope to see you there! Prost! 🥨 🍺





**ery

10/05/2026

💔 Remembering Matthew Shepard

Twenty-eight years ago this week, a 21-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was found tied to a fence outside Laramie, Wyoming.

He died six days later simply because he was gay.💔

~~~~~

On October 6, 1998, Matt left a bar with two men who lured him out under false pretenses. They drove him to a remote area, brutally attacked him, robbed him, tied him to a fence, and left him alone in the freezing night.

Eighteen hours later, a cyclist found him - at first thinking he was a scarecrow.

Matt’s parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, were overseas when they got the call. By the time they reached the hospital in Colorado, Matt was in a coma. He never regained consciousness. They never got to say goodbye.

Dennis once said Matt was almost too tender-hearted - the kind of person who couldn’t even step on a bug. Friends described him as a “light of joy,” someone who never met a stranger. The night he left that bar, he’d been planning an LGBTQ awareness event at his university.

Years later, Judy Shepard shared that she truly believed by now, things would be different - that people would be safe, equal, and accepted. “I am frustrated that we’re not done,” she said. “I am ecstatic that we have come this far. But there’s just so much left to do.”

And she’s right.
Hate crimes still happen. Basic rights are still being denied.

Let’s honor Matthew’s memory not only by remembering his story, but by continuing the work. By refusing to look away. By choosing compassion over hate, and courage over silence. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈
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09/30/2026

CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS - OKTOBERFEST NEEDS YOU!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10
12:00 - 5:00 pm
Beery Field, Downtown Douglas

Saugatuck-Douglas Community PRIDE proudly presents Oktoberfest 2026. This annual community tradition promises to be bigger than ever this year, so get ready to enjoy this Fall-tastic event.

Volunteers bring every event to life and we appreciate those who've signed up, but we still have a few shifts to fill. If you're interested in giving us a hand while having a fun time, please link here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0B4AADA92DA0F5CE9-65244102-oktoberfest #/

This annual crowd favorite event includes:
🥨Live music from authentic German Band, Ein Prosit and DJ John from Thumpbox Music!
🍺Traditional Bavarian dancing from Saugatuck's very own Dance Asylum!
🥨 Bavarian beverages for purchase including w**e from Modales Winery and beers from Saugatuck Brewing!
🍺 Authentic Bavarian Food for purchase, including brats, sauerkraut and pretzels!
🥨Annual events including the Tapping of the Keg and the Keg Toss (with exciting prizes!)

Admission is $10. Please note there are no cash transactions at this event and unfortunately, pets are not permitted inside the gated event area.

We hope to see you there! Prost! 🥨 🍺





**ery

09/29/2026

Kids and educators deserve to thrive in safe and inclusive environments. That’s why your local school boards matter.

Safe Schools Champions are committed to advancing equitable policies, promoting student well-being, and fostering respect and belonging in communities.

Do you know who is on your local school board? Learn about our Safe Schools Champions: hrc.im/safeschoolschampion