OUTShine is Grand Rapids’ annual National Coming Out Day celebration — a night where LGBTQ+ community members gather to breathe, laugh, dance, tell stories, and be fully, unapologetically themselves.

This year’s theme, Free To Be, is both a celebration and a call to action. At a time when LGBTQ+ people are navigating escalating political attacks and harmful rhetoric, OUTShine 2026: Free To Be offers something essential: a joyful, affirming space to recharge, reconnect, and remember who we are.

And this year, we’re dreaming bigger — we want to make OUTShine 2026: Free To Be free for the LGBTQ+ community.

To make that possible, we’re inviting partners, allies/advocates/accomplices, and champions to help us raise $50,000, representing 50% of our annual operating budget. Your support directly fuels our HIV education and prevention work, Gender Expression Workshops, and the development and distribution of our community toolkits.

OUTShine 2026: Free To Be is more than an event. It’s a lifeline. It’s a celebration. It’s a promise.

Your sponsorship helps ensure that LGBTQ+ people — especially youth, trans and nonbinary community members, and those navigating hostile environments — have access to:

• HIV Education & Prevention Programs

• Gender Expression Workshops

• Toolkit Development & Training

• Community‑centered events that build belonging and resilience

And this year, your support also ensures that OUTShine 2026:Free To Be remains free, accessible, and welcoming to all.

This is a moment for the cisgender, heterosexual community to stand shoulder‑to‑shoulder with LGBTQ+ people — not by speaking for us, but by resourcing the joy, rest, and connection that allow us to keep fighting for our lives, our rights, and our futures.

Here are a few examples of the impact the Grand Rapids LGBTQ+ Healthcare Consortium is making and what your sponsorship/ticket purchase would go towards continuing:

This year we launched the Gender Expression Workshop focused on non-medical related ways gender diverse individuals can present socially in their authentic self.
We launched an Adolescent Health Sexual Toolkit in January 2026 and a Gender Euphoria Toolkit in May 2026. We are working on one for Adults as well as an Intersex Toolkit!
Learn more about our projects by clicking here!

OUTShine 2026: Free To Be! Sponsor Page

Join us as we celebrate turning up the volume of authenticity for National Coming Out Day 2026!