Love Is Stronger-Ionia County

Love Is Stronger-Ionia County LOVE Is Stronger (Living Openly Valuing Everyone) a 501(c)3 providing support for rural LGBTQ+ youth in Portland and Ionia Co.

We are a group of Portland residents committed to creating a safe, supportive space for our LGBTQ+ youth and their families.

Happy Pride to those who can’t celebrate openly or safely today. This is why LOVE Is Stronger exists: to remind you that...
06/26/2026

Happy Pride to those who can’t celebrate openly or safely today. This is why LOVE Is Stronger exists: to remind you that you are loved, you are seen, and you are not alone.

Straight people, ask yourselves the question on this graphic. If your honest answer is “no amount,” then your support fo...
06/17/2026

Straight people, ask yourselves the question on this graphic. If your honest answer is “no amount,” then your support for conversion therapy needs to end with it.

It doesn’t work. It’s torture, not treatment. Every major medical and psychological association in this country has rejected it, and the kids forced through it carry that harm for life.

L.O.V.E. Is Stronger stands with every young person who’s been told they need fixing. They don’t. They need to be loved as they are.

A Sunday Message from L.O.V.E. Is Stronger.This morning, churches across this country will open their doors. And in too ...
06/14/2026

A Sunday Message from L.O.V.E. Is Stronger.

This morning, churches across this country will open their doors. And in too many of them, someone at a pulpit will use that sacred space to condemn LGBTQ+ people.

We need to talk about what that actually does.

LGBTQ+ youth are four times more likely to attempt su***de than their peers. That number climbs sharply when you add family rejection, community condemnation, and religious hostility. When a young person hears from their pastor, their neighbors, their community, that who they are is shameful and sinful, it does not make them change. It makes them desperate.

So we are asking the question directly. When you demonize LGBTQ+ people from a pulpit, when you use your platform to strip them of dignity, what is the goal? Because the outcome is not abstract. You are contributing to their deaths. Real young people. Real communities. Just like ours.

Is that the pro-life position?

Here is the other side of that data. LGBTQ+ youth with just one supportive adult in their life are 40% less likely to attempt su***de. One person. One voice saying you are loved and you belong. It changes everything.

Be that voice.

At L.O.V.E. Is Stronger we will be here every single day holding the line for every LGBTQ+ young person in Ionia County. You are loved. Without condition. Without apology. 🌈🤍

If you are struggling, please reach out to the Trevor Project. Call 1-866-488-7386 or text START to 678-678. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In a world where you can be anything, be kind.It really is that simple. And yet here we are.Kindness does not cost a sin...
06/13/2026

In a world where you can be anything, be kind.

It really is that simple. And yet here we are.

Kindness does not cost a single thing. It does not require you to understand someone’s journey. It does not require you to agree with every choice they make or every part of who they are. It just requires you to treat another human being like they matter.

Because they do.

Every LGBTQ+ young person in Ionia County is navigating a world that is loudly telling them they are too much, not enough, or just plain wrong for existing. The noise is relentless. The cruelty can be crushing.

But kindness cuts right through all of it.

One kind word from a teacher. One welcoming adult in the room. One classmate who chooses decency over cruelty. It changes everything. Research tells us that just one supportive person in the life of an LGBTQ+ youth dramatically reduces their risk of crisis.

One person. One act of kindness. That kind of power is available to every single one of us right now.

So today we are asking everyone in our community to make a simple choice. Be kind. To the kid who seems different. To the family that does not look like yours. To the person still figuring it all out.

Be kind. It might save a life. 🌈🤍

Community begins when dignity is mutual.Read that again.Not dignity for some. Not dignity for the ones we agree with or ...
06/12/2026

Community begins when dignity is mutual.

Read that again.

Not dignity for some. Not dignity for the ones we agree with or the ones who look like us or the ones who fit a certain mold. Mutual dignity. For everyone.

That is the foundation L.O.V.E. Is Stronger was built on. Sixteen people from right here in Ionia County who looked around and said: every young person in this community deserves to be treated with dignity. Full stop.

When an LGBTQ+ youth is bullied, that is a dignity problem. When a family is told their child does not belong, that is a dignity problem. When kids are afraid to be themselves in their own hometown, that is a dignity problem.

We are here to be part of the solution. Because we believe Portland and all of Ionia County is capable of being the kind of community where dignity truly is mutual.

That is where real community begins. 💛

Be you. Do you. Celebrate you.It sounds simple. But for so many LGBTQ+ youth in our community, just being yourself takes...
06/11/2026

Be you. Do you. Celebrate you.

It sounds simple. But for so many LGBTQ+ youth in our community, just being yourself takes real courage. At L.O.V.E. Is Stronger, we believe every kid in Ionia County deserves to know that who they are is not a problem to be fixed. It is a gift worth celebrating.

This Pride Month, we are showing up loud and proud for every young person who needs to hear it: you are loved exactly as you are.

That is not just a slogan. It is the reason we exist.

Happy Pride from all of us at L.O.V.E. Is Stronger. 🌈

Pride is not a party. It is a promise.A promise that no kid in Ionia County will face this world alone. A promise that t...
06/11/2026

Pride is not a party. It is a promise.

A promise that no kid in Ionia County will face this world alone. A promise that their family will find support here. A promise that this community will choose love, out loud, every single time.

We rise by lifting others. That is what L.O.V.E. Is Stronger is built on.

All people should be treated equally, regardless of who they are or who they love.It really is that simple.No exceptions...
06/09/2026

All people should be treated equally, regardless of who they are or who they love.

It really is that simple.

No exceptions. No fine print. No asterisks. Every single person walking this earth deserves dignity, safety, and the freedom to love without fear.

This is not a political statement. It is a human one.

If you believe in fairness, if you believe in kindness, if you believe that every person has inherent worth… then you already believe this. You just have to be willing to mean it for everyone.

L.O.V.E. Is Stronger.
Living Openly. Valuing Everyone.
🏳️‍🌈❤️

The bravest thing you can be is yourself.For most people that sentence is just a nice thought. For LGBTQ+ people it is a...
06/08/2026

The bravest thing you can be is yourself.

For most people that sentence is just a nice thought. For LGBTQ+ people it is a lived reality. Being yourself means risking your family. Your community. Your church. Your safety. In some places, your life.

Think about what it takes to walk out the door every day as exactly who you are when the world has made it very clear it would prefer you to be someone else. To say out loud the thing you have been hiding, maybe for years, maybe your whole life. To stop shrinking. To stop pretending. To stop performing a version of yourself that was never really you.

That is not just brave. That is extraordinary.

To every LGBTQ+ person reading this, whether you are fully out, still figuring it out, or somewhere in between, you are not too much. You are not a problem to be fixed. You are not wrong for existing exactly as you are.

Being yourself in a world that pressures you not to be is one of the most courageous things a human being can do.

We see you. We celebrate you. We are here for all of it. 💙

L.O.V.E. Is Stronger. Living Openly Valuing Everyone.

Happy Sunday. 💙Love your neighbor. No exceptions.Not just the ones who look like you, think like you, or pray like you. ...
06/07/2026

Happy Sunday. 💙

Love your neighbor. No exceptions.

Not just the ones who look like you, think like you, or pray like you. All of them. Jesus did not attach a footnote. He did not include a list of exceptions. He just said love them.

We have spent a long time making that very simple instruction very complicated.

It is not complicated. It never was.

Whoever crosses your path today, whoever lives down the street, whoever loves differently or worships differently or looks nothing like you.

Love them anyway. Love them first. Love them without condition.

And if you cannot find it in yourself to love them, then at the very least do not harm them. Not with your judgment. Not with your bigotry. Not with your hateful rhetoric. Because words are not harmless and hate has consequences.

No exceptions.

L.O.V.E. Is Stronger. Living Openly Valuing Everyone. 💙

Address

P. O. Box 384
Portland, MI
48875

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