GRAND LEDGE — Festooned in everything from Alice in Wonderland costumes to tuxedos and prom dresses, hundreds of Michigan youth gathered in this small town May 24 to celebrate themselves, their community and their lives. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Coalition of Michigan (LGBTCCM) held the state’s second-ever prom for LGBT and LGBT-friendly students. The event this year was held in Grand Ledge, Mich., about 20 miles west of Lansing. There in the historic Grand Ledge Opera House, youth from Grand Rapids, East Lansing, Flint, Lansing, Holt and several Lansing-area schools partied into the night in their finery and costumes.

Last year’s prom was held in the Lansing Center in downtown Lansing and attracted about 100 people, said LGBTCCM’s Debbie Harding. Harding is the treasurer of the group and advises the youth who plan the prom and form a committee representing local schools. She said this year, the event drew about 170 people, and the youth raised over $2,000 in the last two months to pay for the rental of the Opera House.

Continued – “We learned a lot from last year,” Harding said. “We were able to cut our costs and we were more successful in fundraising. We had more community support.

“The Grand Ledge Opera House has been wonderful to us,” Harding said. “It’s been a very, very successful evening.”

Pat Williams, a lifelong resident of Grand Ledge, happened by the Opera House as the prom got into full swing. With her were two friends and her 15-year-old daughter, Whitney. They had no idea the prom was happening in their town or even that Grand Ledge had a human rights ordinance which barred discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (passed in 2000).

“I love it,” she said of the prom and it being located in Grand Ledge. “I am very proud.”

“I think it is a good thing,” Whitney said. Whitney is a student at Grand Ledge High School and she said she was going to tell her classmates about the prom. “I am glad we accept that.”

“I think it says we have an open mind and open hearts,” Pat said. “Someday they won’t have to have their own separate prom… it would be more terrific if we could just accept each other as human beings.”