ABOUT JOE HALSCH:
Joe Halsch is the Executive Director of the Jim Toy Community Center, Washtenaw County's LGBTQ+ community center. He believes that strong communities are built through connection and works to create welcoming spaces where LGBTQ+ people can find support, build relationships, and feel like they belong. His work focuses on expanding community programming, strengthening partnerships, and advancing thoughtful advocacy that reflects the needs of the people the Center serves. Joe also oversees Ann Arbor Pride, one of Michigan's largest Pride celebrations, helping bring together tens of thousands of people each year to celebrate LGBTQ+ community and visibility.
RESOURCES:
Jim Toy Community Center on Facebook
Jim Toy Community Center on Instagram
TRANSCRIPTION:
Decky Alexander: This is 89.1 WEMU, and welcome to our weekly conversation on equity and opportunity in our county and in our community. I'm your host, Decky Alexander, and I'm honored, still and always, to welcome you to this week's edition of Washtenaw United. Joe Halsch, Executive Director of the Jim Toy Community Center, Washtenaw County's LGBTQ-plus community center, believes that strong communities are built through connection. Under his direction, and many others, including Jim Toy, the center has, for decades, built a space where LGBTQ-plus people feel connected, feel like they belong, regardless of the forces, political or otherwise, hovering over. What are the ingredients that inoculate an organization whose foundation, despite social progress, is impacted by politics, by policies, and by people who still view an LGBTQ-plus center as too specialized--exclusive versus inclusive. Today, on Washtenaw United, we are gonna talk about Pride, the annual, show-stopping community-wide celebration, both also as a key ingredient that has helped to ensure the life force that is the Jim Toy Community Center, Joe, welcome back to the show!
Joe Halsch: Thanks for having me! I appreciate it!
Decky Alexander: All right! Wonderful! All right. So, Joe, let's begin with the pride of Pride. Ann Arbor Pride has decades of history behind it. And the concept of Pride itself has become really deeply embedded in our county and our city's cultural zeitgeist. Because it's been around so long, it means different things to different eras and people. So, when you look at the landscape today, what do you believe or hope is Pride's primary purpose? Do you see it as a celebration, a homecoming, a political statement? As the director, how do you ensure it manages to be all of those things at once without losing its core identity?
Joe Halsch: Yeah, you're exactly right! All of the above is the answer to that question. It's because I think Pride is a living, breathing event and celebration. For those who don't know, Pride started back in 1969, back in New York City with the Stonewall Riots, and we've really taken that event. And really not just us, but the whole country has rode the ripples of the first brick being thrown as a riot, as a protest, as a way to stand up for our community against oppressive authority. And fast forwarding to today and the many milestones that we've gone through as a community since then, I'm thinking of the AIDS epidemic, I'm thinking of marriage equality and many other battles. And as those politics ebb and flow in our direction or against our direction, Pride, too, takes different forms and gives the community what it needs. I always take out a personal theme for each Pride that I've done. This is my 10th year doing it. And for this year, the theme for me is "Our Community is Our Power." And we talk a lot about these attacks and these issues that we face. And really, what's been pulling us through not just through this time, but many times before this, is the strength and power of our community.
Decky Alexander: Joe, you just talked about what Pride is: community and power. But who do you believe is its audience? You've noted that the LGBTQ-plus community is not a monolith. It's incredibly diverse, spanning different races and ages and faiths. So, who is it for, or who is ideally for for you?
Joe Halsch: Yeah, I think it starts with, first and foremost, the members of our community, the LGBTQ-plus people across Washtenaw County and recognizing what they need in that particular moment in history and time for some people that might be mental health resources, affirming doctors and healthcare for others that might be friends and faces and bodies that look like them, and they can see their future selves or their current selves in other people and community. For others, it's a moment of being able to take a breath, take a break, from all the fighting and all the resistance and to enjoy the queer experience and to celebrate the queer experiences with love, with laughter, with music, with dance, with drag. And so, I think one of the big challenges that we go into every year is making sure there's a little bit of everything there. And I think, secondarily to that, you've got to think about the people that love us. Allies are certainly a part of every major social movement that has been successful. And so, when allies reach out and say, "Hey, I know this event isn't for me specifically, but I want to be there to support my child, my partner, my loved ones, my neighbor, my community," there are plenty of ways for allies to get involved to make sure that we can set up an environment where that queer joy can happen in a safe environment and provide a place where people can learn, grow on certainly August 1st, but then be able to take that experience, take those connections, take those businesses, those relationships on to August 2nd and beyond. Because to me that's just as equally important is the day after Pride as Pride itself.
Decky Alexander: You are listening to Washtenaw United on 89.1 WEMU. I'm Decky Alexander, and today, we're talking with Joe Halsch, the Executive Director of the Jim Toy Community Center, Washtenaw County's LGBTQ-plus center, a place of pride and possibility in our county. Joe, as somebody who mentioned that they've been involved in this Pride for 10 years, you most likely attended and participated in multiple Pride events prior to running this one. Is there a moment or experience that crystallizes Pride for you?
Joe Halsch: Ooh, that's a great question! First of all, I can't remember the last time I attended a Pride just for fun. It's been a busy 10 years, but I love my work and it is critically important. This year, I spent a lot of my time in rural Washtenaw this Pride season. I got the opportunity to speak at Chelsea's Pride. I tabled at Milan's. We also went over to Saline and did some programming there as well. And it really was a reminder that the size of the Pride is irrelevant to the experience that you are creating in that space for those people, because my favorite part of every Pride that I've been a part of has been those small moments--those small moments when a kid comes up to the table and says, "Thank you for being here. I just came out, and my parents weren't thrilled about it, but I'm here with my friends. I'm here meeting others in our community." I see hope. I see future. I see my life going in a positive way, even though there are struggles and there are tribulations. You know, giving people the opportunity to learn about the legacy of the queer community and whether you've been out for a couple weeks or a couple decades, that struggle, that history, is baked into who we are as queer people in Washtenaw County. And seeing that light bulb really empower in a new member of the community, maybe having a parent over here, the magic, the superpowers, that their kid has just by being themselves, that, to me, is why I do what I do.
Decky Alexander: Well, it seems that the center we know is transformational for many, many in our community. The biggest barrier is actually, in some ways, to the center a positive sign of trust, and the needs keep growing. So, what needs are you seeing, Joe, in this moment in time?
Joe Halsch: You know, there's a lot of the same needs that we've needed for all of time. We've needed safe spaces. We've needed referrals to places where we can explore and learn about ourselves and our community. We've needed places where we can be unapologetically ourselves and to be able to learn about our selves in those spaces. You know, I think it's really easy to think, "It's 2026. Do we really still need a Pride?" And my answer, unequivocally, is yes. You still see these attacks on this national level, but there are also attacks right here in our local community. They might not be as obvious, they might be not as publicized, but I get these calls every week: people looking for safety and support and love, some of the basic needs of human life. And to me, when I think about the opposition that we're against, I don't really understand. I'm fighting for people to be themselves, to be able to love themselves, to be able to be exactly who they are. And not just the queer people in our community, but everybody. Everybody deserves that right. You know, it looks like it does because we talk a lot about sexual orientation and gender, and that's confusing to people who haven't been a part of that process or don't know anybody who's gone through that moment of exploration, but it is absolutely still needed today.
Decky Alexander: You addressed a massive shift nationally with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding systematically stripped, right, from LGBTQ-plus health research, public health, youth and anti-bullying initiatives, data collection. Even if the Jim Toy Center isn't a direct federal research hub, how do these kinds of rollbacks indirectly or multiply the pressure on your local staff and resources here in Washtenaw County?
Joe Halsch: Yeah. So, our local staff is one. It's just me. And we've got a contractor and the president of our board that does some of the behind-the-scenes thing. But this is truly a community center. The program that we have going on here is by members of our community or allies of our community that want to donate their time, donate their gifts, donate their ability to make safe spaces and lift up community. You're right. We aren't a research facility. We don't have any state grants or federal grants. In that world, we've been more impacted by the rollbacks of DEI at the corporate level. And I'm thinking about sponsorships or other types of programs that we've typically partnered with larger company ERGs, or employee resource groups. What has been amazing with all of these cuts and rollbacks is the ma-and-pa's, the family businesses, the small individuals making up for some of those larger donations. And it doesn't come in as one large lump sum. It's $100 here, $500 here, $1,000 here. And through there, we've been able to not only maintain Pride and the community center, but grow it. You know, we've been in our physical space now for about a year-and-a-half. We've been able to launch about 15 different programs and meetups where we've got about 30 events a month. So certainly, we're really appreciative of all the individuals and the small businesses that have really come together to see the importance and see the value of our work.
Decky Alexander: Joe, one final quick question. So, as a staff of one, but a community of many, let's future the center, Joe. What is its shape, or how does it continue to situate itself in Ann Arbor in the future?
Joe Halsch: Yeah, I think it's growth. That's what I'm looking at, pie in the sky, big goals. I would love to be able to have a full staff. I'd love to be able to bring in a mental health services into the community center. I'd love to bring more paid employees and staff to be able to compensate for people's time and expertise. I also see growth beyond the easy bubbles of Ann Arbor and Ypsi. I want to make sure that we are going into the rural areas where health is often just as needed as in Ann Arbor and Ypsi, but it needs to look a little bit different. We need to be able to meet people where they're at and really build those conversations with trust, similarly how we've been able to done in Ann Arbor and Ypsi. So, I'm absolutely looking forward to getting into those areas because, as queer people, you said we're not a monolith, and you're absolutely right. We are everywhere! We are rich. We are poor. We are conservative. We're liberal. We're Black. We're white. We're everything! And one of the most exciting parts of my job is to be able to take advantage of that intersectionality of our community is to be able to reach all these different populations.
Decky Alexander: That was Joe Halsch, the Executive Director of the Jim Toy Community Center, sharing the realities and wonder of the center and its annual celebration and commemoration of LGBTQ-plus rights, Ann Arbor Pride, which is set for August 1st in downtown Ann Arbor on Main Street. To learn more about Ann Arbor Pride and the center's year-round work, swing by our website at wemu.org. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. And you can hear it here, right here, every Monday. I'm Decky Alexander, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU Ypsilanti. Thanks for listening!
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
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