SAGINAW — Ojibway Island in Saginaw will host the Tri-City LGBT Pride Festival from 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday.

The event will feature food vendors and merchants, children’s activities and games and musicians.

Guest speaker Alicia Skillman, an attorney who works in metro Detroit, will deliver a message encouraging lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people to have pride in who they are. Skillman is a Saginaw native and former director of Equality Michigan, a group that advocates for equal rights for the gay community.

Kathy M. VanBuskirk, committee chairwoman for Tri-City Michigan LGBT Pride and minister of Divine Light Interfaith Ministries in Saginaw, said she hopes to shed the stigma associated with the gay community by bringing everyone together.

“A lot of people do not have a good perspective of what a person in an LGBT community is really like. This will show them how normal they really are,” said Van VanBuskirk, a Saginaw resident.

VanBuskirk said she is concerned with the United States’ suicide rate for homosexuals and wants to try to lower the numbers.

“The suicide rate in this country is ridiculous. Most of them are people from the LGBT community that have trouble accepting who they are,” she said.

After attending a similar festival last year in another city, VanBuskirk said she was motivated to begin one in Saginaw. She expects people — regardless of their sexuality — to attend.

“We’re hoping that members of the straight community will come, and by doing so, will help make a stronger unified community in general,” VanBuskirk said. “With the numbers that are showing up on our Facebook page, and people I have talked to from other areas of the state, I’m expecting over 1,000 people to show up.

“It’s just going to be a big festival.”

For information, call VanBuskirk at 989-755-2618.