The Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce has renamed itself the Michigan Pride Chamber of Commerce and is taking its help for LGBTQ+-owned businesses beyond metro Detroit.
The chamber announced the change July 9. Its plan is to grow across Southeast Michigan first, then move into Lansing, Grand Rapids, Mid-Michigan and Northern Michigan over several years. The Upper Peninsula comes last.
“Our vision has always been bigger than a single region,” Kevin Heard, the chamber’s president and executive director, said in the announcement.
Heard co-founded the group in 2013. In an Oct. 28 interview with Model D, he traced the idea to the day the network helped a Battle Creek business land a $1 million grant.
“I realized we weren’t limited to making an impact in Southeast Michigan. We could truly make an impact across the state,” he said.
Michigan Pride Chamber Starts With a Listening Tour, Not Satellite Offices
The chamber says its first move is a statewide listening tour with local Pride groups and community leaders.
“This is expansion, but we have to first listen,” Heard told Model D.
“We’re not arriving in communities believing we’re the first to do this work,” he said in the July release.
Dropping “Detroit” from the name took about a year and a half of talks with board members, corporate partners and funders, Model D reported. “Our responsibility as a board is to think beyond today and build an organization that creates lasting opportunity,” board chair Dorian Grey said in the release.
Down the road, Heard wants more full-time staff, satellite offices and formal partners in regions the chamber hasn’t reached, according to Model D.
“Every single city has someone who is LGBT. We know that,” he told Axios Detroit in July.
Grand Rapids is on that list. Its Pride Center, the oldest LGBTQ+ community center in Michigan, has been raising emergency money to keep its doors open.
LGBTBE Certification and Corporate Partners Like Ford, Stellantis and Magna
Local LGBTQ+ chambers are the way in to LGBT Business Enterprise certification from the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. LGBTQ+ owners have to “control, manage, operate, and own the company 51% or more,” and the review “can take up to 90 days,” according to the chamber’s certification page.
The chamber says Michigan’s network of certified LGBTQ+-owned suppliers has grown from six businesses to more than 50. It lists more than 10 corporate partners, including Ford, Stellantis and Magna. Sterling Littlejohn of the Detroit Pistons sits on its board, and Model D reported the team is among the groups that want to partner.
Board vice chair Christina Ware told Model D that certification shouldn’t be read as a box checked. “You actually have really good skills and business offerings that could be utilized,” she said.
A $250,000 MEDC Grant and Michigan’s Expanded Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. awarded the chamber $250,000 in May 2025 through its Trusted Connector Grant program, which funds groups that work with underrepresented small businesses. In a separate 2023 profile, MEDC wrote that the chamber’s plan would reach “over 800 more LGBTQ+ and allied businesses.”
IRS filings posted by ProPublica show the Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber Fund, a 501(c)(3) with Heard as president, took in $204,044 in 2024. The year before, it was $61,702.
Oakland County Executive David Coulter backed the statewide push in the July release. “Organizations that invest in entrepreneurs and small businesses invest in stronger communities,” he said.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Senate Bill 4, adding sexual orientation and gender identity or expression to Michigan’s civil rights law, on March 16, 2023. “Getting this done will help attract and retain talent from across the nation,” Whitmer said at the time.
Heard told Model D he hopes the growth leaves people feeling like they’re missing out. “We just want to make sure that people get FOMO and come and join us as well,” he said.
