Michigan Queer Artists Are Weaponizing Joy Against the Trump Era
From storefront stages to chorus risers, LGBTQ+ performers are turning delight into defiance
Nobody said resistance would be fun — but Michigan's queer artists are making a strong case for it. As federal rollbacks on LGBTQ+ rights, attacks on DEI programs and relentless culture war rhetoric wear on audiences, performing artists across the state are reaching for a sometimes-elusive tool of resistance: joy.
Chad Swan-Badgero, artistic director for Lansing's Peppermint Creek Theatre Company, has spent 30 years exploring political and human questions through theater. After directing "Fatherland," a play about a Jan. 6 insurrectionist, he sees the stage as more essential than ever.
"At its best, theater has always been a space where people can gather to make meaning together, and in moments of political and social tension, that function becomes even more vital," Swan-Badgero said. "For queer communities in particular, the stage has long served as both a mirror and a sanctuary: a place to see ourselves reflected truthfully, and a place to imagine futures that feel more just, expansive and joyful."
That sentiment is echoing across the state. Singer-songwriters Joy Clark and Kate Peterson performed "Joy as an Act of Resistance" in late March at Ann Arbor's The Ark and Lansing's Ten Pound Fiddle. Sistrum, a queer women's chorus in Lansing, performed at the Capitol during the No Kings Rally and is building its anniversary concert around joy and community protest.
In Ferndale, the Ringwald Theatre has been running a season at Affirmations mixing drama, farce and laughter. And in Lansing, "Joy as Resistance: Take a Stand! Sit In!" brought two days of workshops and events to Lansing Community College and the Capital City Film Festival in April, channeling protest through song, dance, film, comedy, poetry and even crafts like crocheting, beading, macrame and knitting.
For Peterson, perhaps best known for being half of the duo Nervous but Excited, the work is as much about sustainability as it is about protest.
"When we don't have the energy to get out there and make a big statement, what we can do is continue to take care of each other. One of the ways that we do that is through music and art and celebrating together with like-minded people," Peterson said.
Joe Bailey, artistic director of the Ringwald Theatre, put it plainly: "There's so much value in sitting in a room full of people that you don't know and sharing that common experience of just having fun."
In February, Ringwald presented Matthew López's "Somewhere," a play about the Latino experience in the U.S. in 1959, selling out most of their shows. They followed that with an adaptation of John Irving's novel about an abortion provider when abortion was still illegal. But comedy was also an intentional part of their response, with shows like "Silver Foxes" and "Steel Poinsettias."
"It was an antidote. It was a way to just enjoy yourself and laugh for a couple hours. The balance is needed," Bailey added. "For every 'Cider House Rules,' you have to do something that people can just turn their brains off and enjoy themselves."
When Ringwald chose to stage "Annie" with all adult actors, it too was a deliberate response to the moment.
"It was a choice to actively choose optimism in your day-to-day life. Joy and laughter are absolutely important, relevant and necessary."
Connar Klock, artistic director of Queer Theatre Kalamazoo, is navigating a trickier funding environment. Worsening economic conditions and the ongoing culture wars have many funders shying away from overtly political or queer groups, and Klock has watched regional and community theaters across the country quietly roll back queer programming to protect their donor bases — pulling back years of hard-won progress to retain audiences drifting further to the right. Queer Theatre Kalamazoo is going the other direction.
"I have decided that Queer Theatre is going to lean in a little bit further than we were before into being political, into being anti-fascist and to making sure that our stories are told and that queer artists are being paid," Klock said.
Klock also curated a season of works by women playwrights, including Leanna Keyes' abortion-themed "Doctor Voynich and Her Children" and Sarah Ault's "The Lysistrata Project."
Meghan Eldred-Woolsey, artistic director of Lansing’s Sistrum Chorus, said they don’t have the luxury of ignoring politics. Like other community and church choirs, they contend with funding, marketing and repertoire decisions — but as a queer chorus, those pressures carry additional weight.
"Those are things that we are actively concerned with because we are out there on the front line being at the marches and being a part of the movement," Eldred-Woolsey said. "That is something gay and lesbian choruses have to do. We are called to be a part of that. Queer organizations are at the root of trying to make a space for everyone."
Klock is quick to note that the demand for queer storytelling right now exists because those stories aren't just for queer audiences.
"There is so much that cis-het folks could learn from the way that queer people have had to adapt to live in this life with our relationship structures, our family structures, our ability to have difficult conversations and not make assumptions about people," Klock said. "Queer themes now are more useful to everyone at large than ever before."
Collective imagination, Swan-Badgero said, is a form of power, a weapon against despair and nihilism. "Theater doesn't just reflect the world — it helps shape it. And in this moment, lifting up queer voices onstage is one way we actively participate in building the kind of world we want to live in."
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