Royal Oak Farmers Market hosts Family Pride event

ROYAL OAK — The Royal Oak Farmers Market will host the fourth annual Family Pride event, created to recognize and appreciate the LGBTQ+ community.

The event will take place from 4 to 9 p.m. June 11 at the Royal Oak Farmers Market, 316 E. 11 Mile Road.

“Family Pride is a family-centered event that celebrates the diversity in our community and our city’s many queer families and their children,” said Christie Siegel, farmers market event planner. “Featuring family-friendly activities like musical performers, crafts, food trucks, community vendors, giveaways, entertainment for kids from local community members and a drag queen story time, this event is the perfect way to celebrate June’s Pride Month.”

Becca Russell, teen and young adult librarian at the Royal Oak Public Library, said that this event was created to bring awareness to the youth LGBTQ+ community, and their families.

“Family Pride started as a suggestion from a young family in Royal Oak that wanted a celebration that focused on LGBTQ+ families,” Russell said. “Our celebration is all ages, but the focus is to represent and recognize the queer families in our community, whether that means children with queer parents, or parents supporting queer children. We wanted to create a Pride event where those families could celebrate themselves in a fully family-friendly environment.”

New to this year’s Family Pride will be the headlining performance of OneUp Duo, a Detroit-based pop and soul vocal combination composed of husbands Adam and Jerome Bell-Bastien. The duo was featured on season 15 of NBC’s “The Voice” and will perform from 7 to 9 p.m. in the west parking lot of the market.

“The other highlights of our schedule include Prism Men’s Chorus, who we are excited to have for the third time, but with a totally new set of tunes, and we will once again have drag queen story time, featuring the fabulous Mimi Southwest,” Russell said.

Both Siegel and Russell agree that the main goal of this event is to bring together the community and showcase the importance of acceptance.

“We just try to make it a safe space for the community,” Siegel said.

“I believe Royal Oak prides itself on being a welcoming and accepting community, and part of achieving acceptance is seeing all of the different kinds of families we have in our city brought together for this fun and family-friendly event,” Russell said. “Visibility and understanding go a long way to achieving acceptance for LGBTQ+ folks, and I think it’s important to openly celebrate the queer families in our community and show that this is a safe place for queer parents to raise children, but more importantly, for queer kids to know that their community celebrates them and that they are welcome and supported here.”

This is a free event. For more information on the Family Pride event, visit romi.gov.