More than 200 people showed up at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse when Cheers to Queers (C2Q), a grassroots LGBTQ+ organization, hosted an event called Queer Prom this April. Co-organizers Danya Youssef-Agha and Marisa Quiery say their third queer prom had about 220 in attendance. Tickets sold out a week before the event, which aimed to create a positive, celebratory environment for LGBTQ+ adults who may have had unpleasant experiences at their high school proms.

"In this current state of the world, it's even more empowering and important to have spaces like this," Youssef-Agha says. 

Quiery says having a waitlist "felt good."

"It meant that we had this much support in the community," Quiery says.
Audrey CookeQueer Prom at the Ypsi Freighthouse.
Many in the nation's LGBTQ+ community are feeling under attack as President Donald Trump's second term has brought a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ actions, including half a dozen just on his first day in office. Transgender people have been especially targeted. One of Trump's first actions in office was to sign an executive order stating that the U.S. would only recognize two unchangeable sexes, male and female, with aims to prevent taxpayer funds from being used for gender-transition health care and other services for trans citizens.

But Ypsilanti-area organizations and community members are supporting local members of the LGBTQ+ community in a variety of ways, ranging from Queer Prom to supportive health care to queer takeovers of public spaces.

"We're not make believe"

Alex Plum, executive director of Ypsilanti's Corner Health Center, says that Trump's micro-focus on LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly trans ones, seems out of proportion to the tiny fraction of the population that identifies as trans. A 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that 1.6% of U.S. adults are transgender. Other studies have found the percentage to be even lower.

"To pick on a part of our population that is not powerful in numbers is such an absolutely immoral and detestable thing to do," Plum says. "To pillory and castigate this group of people doing nothing except going to work, serving their country, going to school, or wanting health care, and treating them as the bogeyman, is just awful."
Doug CoombeAlex Plum.
Plum says that, early in 2025, he went out of his way to listen to trans patients' stories. He says he felt "blown away"  by how overwhelmingly ordinary their lives were.

"One person told me, 'We're not make believe.' That broke my heart," Plum says. "That's the way trans people get talked about, [as] this 'other' scary group."

Noting that Corner's target demographic is youth ages 12 to 25, Plum says adolescence and early adulthood are already stressful times.

"And now the president of the U.S. is talking this way about them. It's unconscionable," he says.

The number of trans clients seen at Corner is testament to the nonprofit's welcoming atmosphere. Plum notes that 24% percent of the nonprofit's patients identify as transgender, compared to the less than 2% of Americans who do the same. 

Plum says many of those patients are seeking gender-affirming care. That can include administering hormones. But it also encompasses psychological and social support like Corner's "any gender" free clothing store, peer support, and education on how to use a syringe or how to come out to your family. 

Corner has two staff health educators who make sure the center's services are accepting and affirming of trans patients. The center also has an intermittent support group for LGBTQ+ people. In the past, the organization also ran a program for parents of trans youth to educate and prepare themselves to support their trans children. Plum says staff didn't have bandwidth to support that effort beyond the 12-week program, but many of the parents made friends, "which was part of the goal of the initiative," Plum says. 

Of all LGBTQ+ patients, particularly trans ones, Plum says: "We need to stand by them [and] make sure they have access to affordable, judgement-free adolescent health and wellness care."

Going back to basics

Emma Mentley Wuetrich, head of the LGBT Resource Center on Eastern Michigan University's campus, says the center's focus remains the same no matter what's happening in the national political landscape. She says activism isn't the main goal for the center, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year.

"Our focus isn't necessarily in the realm of preparing students to be global leaders. Right now, we're focused on retention, on getting these students through to graduation," she says. "We're going back to basic needs for our students."
Doug CoombeEmma Mentley Wuetrich.
She says the LGBTQ+ students she's spoken to this year have been "nervous, scared, uncertain."

"They don't know what the world is going to be like when they graduate," she says. "My priority is getting my students to be their best selves so they can get their degree here. Right now, that looks like a lot of just being here for them, building connections, and creating a sense of safety."

The resource center has physical spaces where LGBTQ+ students can talk to each other or to accepting, affirming staff members. They can also access tangible goods and services like STI testing or gender-affirming clothing, including chest binders for trans men.

Mentley Wuetrich says her main message to LGBTQ+ students is "we're still here." She says the best way to keep up with resource center news and events is the center's Instagram page.

"Spaces where you can still believe in the future"

Other LGBTQ+ Ypsi residents are creating the community and events that they want to see in a challenging time. C2Q/Queer Prom organizers Youssef-Agha and Quiery are friends who have lived in Ypsilanti for over a decade. They say that losing Ann Arbor's long-lived gay bar, Aut Bar, was difficult, as there are already so few dedicated safe spaces for queer people in the community. That's part of what inspired them to start C2Q. They began hosting monthly or bi-monthly bar takeovers in 2022, when Ypsi Pride took a hiatus. Both C2Q organizers work full-time and run events in their spare time. 
Valentinezwaaay PhotographyAttendees at Queer Prom.
Since there isn't a dedicated gay bar in Ypsilanti, Youssef-Agha says, "What we can provide in the meantime is creating spaces more like a pop-up event."

The first regulars of the C2Q group would take over bars and coffee shops on low-traffic days of the week, like Tuesdays, to give local businesses like Mash, Corner Brewery, or Vertex a little extra income on traditionally slow nights. Youssef-Agha says they also hosted an event that was like speed dating, but for making friends, as well as a couple of "silent discos" at a friend's dance studio.

The idea for Queer Prom came about while Youssef-Agha and Quiery were talking with other LGBTQ+ people about their high school prom experiences.

"I don't know many people who walked away from prom having had a great experience," Youssef-Agha says. "We really wanted to recreate that for our community but where you can wear what you want, go with you you want to go with, and not be judged on how you're dancing. It's a safe place to meet people."
Valentinezwaaay PhotographyAttendees at Queer Prom.
Prom traditions are very gendered in a way that doesn't always resonate with the queer community, Youssef-Agha says. So instead of having a king and queen, organizers told everyone in attendance that they were all royalty.

Youssef-Agha says the two organizers gave a speech this year to commemorate the third year of the prom. 

"We told them that royalty is everyone who arrives there. Each year, people walk in understanding the importance of prom. You can see it on their faces, and the effort they put into their clothing or makeup choices," Youssef-Agha says. "Then, at a certain point in the night, you see people's individual ideas of what this is come together in unison, dancing and celebrating."
Doug CoombeDanya Youssef-Agha and Marisa Quiery.
Youssef-Agha says it can be hard to see beyond the negativity queer people are currently absorbing through media.

"We like to provide spaces where you can still believe in the future, because there is a future past this administration," Youssef-Agha says.

All photos by Doug Coombe.