Try Pride in A Small Town

Guest post by singer/songwriter Morgxn and husband Gabe

This past Saturday, June 7th, my husband and I cohosted a Pride Celebration in deeply red Sumner County, Tennessee. 

Present at the event were Nashville City Councilwoman and the first openly trans elected official in Tennessee, Olivia Hill, and State Senator (as well as ally and personal hero), Heidi Campbell. Despite attendance by our Davidson County allies, it’s important to note there is not one elected official in Sumner County that affirms anyone’s right to exist in this place. 

This year was the 3rd official Affirming Sumner event in Sumner County, but the first hosted on private land - our property, Fruity Farm. 

Affirming Sumner was started by Emma Holland, who runs The Collab in Hendersonville, and Emma Frost and Lauren Niceley who co-own Earth First Plant Co & Vintage in Gallatin. Together with PFLAG Hendersonville, who had previously held a Pride picnic, they were looking for land to host this year’s celebration and reached out to us. 

To say that there is zero local government public funding or support for the LGBTQ+ community is an understatement. There is active opposition to affirming programming, and leaders throughout the community constantly promote LGBTQ+ negative views explicitly in public through the passage of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. The LGBTQ+ community is targeted implicitly through failure to recognize that the LGBTQ+ community is a historically underserved community and that learning and acknowledging this history in the present might serve a public good. And because of online vitriol and hate, even affirming spaces and organizations are choosing not to host events like this and are backing down from serving their whole community. 

So the goal of Affirming Sumner was simple: find a space that is private and safe and we will create this space ourselves. 

And create it we did.  

We had over 500 RSVPs for this small town pride. There is both need, necessity, and vitality to creating space like this. 

All Pride is vital. But pride in a small town feels viscerally important. It feels urgent and necessary. 

My husband, Gabe, grew up in Sumner County. I could cry thinking about how sweet it was to see him beaming on June 7th and helping to create the experience for others that wasn’t available to him while growing up here. 

A lot of work went into making this happen. We created a team that collectively worked our butts off to bring it all together, and we had amazing volunteers that saw what we were doing for the community and joined in the essential work, making it possible. 

We sometimes jokingly say, “we could do less.” We could very easily just sit back and let other people step up. Let other people get involved. A small town event like this cannot happen unless normal people see the need and try to fill it. There is so much joy in finding an opportunity like this, saying yes, and serving your community. It connects you to the geography and community that you live in. It did that for us.

We can’t expect change if we do nothing. If Pride began as a riot, it continues as a necessary communion. It is a sacrament of communal joining. 

With Tennessee passing more anti-LGBTQ+ laws than any other state in the country, what do you think it’s like to be queer in the most red and rural counties in the state?

I’m not talking about just the United States. I’m talking about the actual countryside, the heartland of our country. 

I had a lot of preconceived notions about existing in rural spaces, and some were very wrong. I’ve met wonderful people out here. They want to live and let live. They want to be friendly neighbors. They want to pay their bills and support their families. And they have not had any issue with how me and my husband live. 

And at the same time - one thing I thought to be true and is especially true in the heartland - there are tons of queer people who also just want to live and let live. Who want to be seen and heard and AFFIRMED - the way any human being should be. 

I know we can’t fix the world and we definitely can’t fix our country overnight. But what I found in a small town is pride, love, community, and hope. That’s what life is all about. 

with love,

Morgan & Gabe

PS — I just want to shout out the sponsors and vendors who made this first Pride on our farm possible. Because our appreciation needs to be shouted. Also, know that there were other silent partners who, because of the political environment we live in, could only support anonymously.

We also had many private donations from individuals who literally made this all possible. 

Big shout out to our team: 

PFLAG Hendersonville

Fruity Farm

The Collab

Earth First Plant Co. & Vintage

the What is Vital project 

Thank you to our amazing and generous sponsors:

Gibson Furniture

TME Brand Marketing

Better than Booze 

Payton Prints

BEC Innovations

Sumner County Democratic Party

My Cluck Hut

Maxine’s Heavenly

D’Andrews Bakery & Cafe

8th & Roast Coffee

Far Too Loud AV/D

Thank you to Dylan of DreamFever for creating our poster! 

And thank you to our awesome vendors! 

Jamie Hill, REALTOR®️, One Stop Realty & Auction

DreamFever.co + Blood Worth Hot Sauce

My Cluck Hut

a|dash

BEC Innovations, LLC

Cold Brew Boba

Abundance Cast

Sumner County Democratic Party 

Matters of the Heart Counseling

Sumner Period Pantry

Reclamation Ink

Luke Starner, Financial Advisor

Andre’s Barbecue

Nian Fiedler of Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation

GodWhy