Fayetteville is the only city in North Carolina with a population greater than 200,000 people without an LGBTQ+ center.
One local organization wants to change that.
Fayetteville PRIDE is leading a charge to establish a resource center in the city. Founded in 2017, the group is newer than other LGBTQ+ centers in N.C. In comparison, cities including Raleigh, Asheville, Charlotte and Wilmington each have centers established by organizations around for a decade or longer.
LGBTQ+ centers are resource hubs that offer education, support groups, health services, and more to LGBTQ+ people, according to CenterLink, a member-based coalition of LGBTQ+ centers across the world.
Fayetteville PRIDE held its first Pride Festival in 2018 and has had three more since then, with a brief hiatus in 2020 and 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to its festival, the group hosts events for LGBTQ+ youth and has an LGBTQ+ friendly business guide on its website.
Krystal Maddox, an at-large member of Fayetteville PRIDE’s board of directors, said establishing a physical LGBTQ+ center in the Fayetteville area has been a goal of the organization since it was founded — a goal that was delayed by the pandemic. Maddox, who’s lived in Fayetteville for more than 40 years, has been out as a transgender woman since 1983. She got involved with Fayetteville PRIDE in 2019 after attending the inaugural 2018 Pride Festival. She now helps the organization at outreach events such as Fourth Friday in downtown Fayetteville.
Maddox and the Fayetteville PRIDE board are “putting out feelers” for a potential location for the center. She said the group may have access to office space as soon as next month, through an offer by an ally to the group who wishes to remain nameless.
“It's a much-needed start,” she said.
The importance of having a dedicated “safe zone” in Fayetteville isn’t lost on Maddox, especially in today's divisive political climate.
“It's just gotten more of a desperate need over the last couple of years because things have gotten worse for our community,” she said.
In the past year, more than 540 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed nationwide — 10 of those were proposed here in North Carolina. Particularly harsh legislation like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” and other sex-based bathroom restriction laws have created controversy. According to the Human Rights Council, LGBTQ+-based hate crimes increased by 13.8% in 2022.
Amid the rise in bills and violence targeting LGBTQ+ populations, Maddox wants the center to be a place where both LGBTQ+ youth and adults can be linked to critical resources — both in-house and out in the community — such as suicide prevention and mental health services, emergency housing, hormone replacement therapy providers and legal advice.
Data suggests there may be more than 1,000 LGBTQ youths in and around the Fayetteville area.
“Even our schools are not safe zones anymore,” Maddox said, citing the new state policy that requires teachers to notify parents if a student goes by a different name or pronouns at school.
Maddox worries that this policy will lead to worse outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth with nowhere safe to be themselves — be that at home or now at school.
“That's the whole reason you need resources outside of your home,” Maddox said.
In North Carolina, transgender youths are unable to receive gender-affirming services such as puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and gender-affirming surgeries until they reach 18, per a law passed earlier this year. Gender-affirming treatments have been endorsed by most major medical organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, as effective health care for trans youth.
“In some cases, children are going to be thrown out of their homes, and we've got to have some way to protect them or to get knowledge to them of where they can go (for help),” Maddox said.
The timeline for the project is unknown at this point, but Maddox knows it’s a need for the Fayetteville community.
“We want our community to know that we aren’t just a festival,” she said. “We're trying to make a difference and educate the community.”
For more information about Fayetteville PRIDE visit https://www.fayettevillepride.org/#/. If you or someone you know is looking for LGBTQ+ resources, visit https://glaad.org/resourcelist/ for a list of resources.
Contact Char Morrison at cmorrison@cityviewnc.com.
