Member-only story
Building Queer Community
Book clubs and beyond
When I first moved back to Nashville four years ago, I had very few friends. Having spent the last eight years living in New York, I had maintained very little community in my hometown. And having gone to a religious, anti-lgbt school, I wasn’t super excited to reconnect with people I had known from my teenage years.
As a result, the first few months, maybe even the first year, was lonely. I downloaded dating apps, but had a hard time connecting with people, probably because I was incredibly depressed. I was working a job that was fairly isolating, office friendships were few and far between. I had no one to celebrate my birthday with that year. I sat in my kitchen and cried, wondering why I had made the decision to leave my friends, my community behind. I cried several more times over the next few months.
Until one day I realized that if I couldn’t find community, then I was going to have to build it from the ground up. I knew I needed to be around more queer people; being queer in a red state is a task that demands solidarity. But I didn’t want to…
