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Inclusion Tennessee was conceived following a one-year community needs assessment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community throughout Middle Tennessee in 2019. This community assessment engaged over two-thousand people throughout the mid-state to gain an understanding of what LGBTQIA+ people in this region needed in order to thrive.

The community needs assessment that was commissioned by Nashville Pride, referred to as the Community Visioning Project, clearly identified many unmet needs within our community. These ranged from having access to affirming and fully inclusive healthcare to having safe social environments outside of nightlife. The Community Visioning Project recommendations were released at the end of 2019, sharing five specific solutions that could be created by our then current LGBTQIA+ organizations. The charge was placed to the community and the research continued into the new year. 

The new year started off with development of community-led task forces that were charged with creating additional proposals as companion elements to the five specific recommendations from the aforementioned community visioning project. Within a few short months, what we all had expected for a new and exciting decade took a dramatic turn for the worse. Nashville was particularly hit hard as a tornado ripped through our city two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic brought our world to a standstill. Combine those two catastrophes with a 100-year flood, a high-impact wind event, and a Christmas Day bombing, the resiliency of our community was stretched to a breaking point. A city that comes together in times of need and supports its own when there is a long road to recovery, shows you the kind of community that Nashville is and the type of people we truly are. 

After much uncertainty from the pandemic and continuing to see increases on the assault on black and transgender bodies, the diminishing of Latinx people, criminalization of our friends experiencing homelessness, failed support mechanisms for mental health needs, the rabid increase in gun violence, and the overall lack of belonging for the most marginalized, we felt the need to act in a way that focused on the justice and liberation for all people — especially those who are part of our LGBTQIA+ community. 

In August 2021, Inclusion Tennessee was officially formed with a mission to connect people, opportunities, and resources to enrich and enhance the lives of the multi-faceted LGBTQIA+ community. 

We organized with the intent to address the five recommendations from the Community Visioning Project, while continuing its own research throughout the region. Our organization, aligned our vision under the recommendations and clearly spelling out what we hope to accomplish in the years ahead — those include: 

• Embracing our LGBTQIA+ mission focused, mission adjacent, and community partners in collaborative spaces focused on creating models of collective impact.

• Collaborating with affirming agencies in the mid-state to co-locate wraparound services, resources, and programming for LGBTQIA+ young people, with a specific focus on the 18-24 year old population. This includes the working towards the development of affordable housing, whole health care, respite care, mutual aid resources, career training, and more.

• Collaborating with affirming agencies in the mid-state to co-locate services, resources, and programming for LGBTQIA+ older adults, ages 50+. This includes developing safe social opportunities, connection into healthcare resources, affordable housing, respite care, mutual aid resources, support groups, and end-of-life planning.

• Partnering with healthcare agencies and providers to develop a comprehensive digital-first healthcare navigation solution that provides LGBTQIA+ community members with detailed information about affirming healthcare providers, QTBIPOC specialized providers, health resources, and safe spaces throughout Tennessee.

• Building an LGBTQIA+ Community Center in Nashville, with satellite services throughout the mid-state. The center will be designed by the community. Our desire is to build a space that welcomes all people who affirm and support LGBTQIA+ people. The resources housed within this space could consist of: co-working space, a theatre, meeting rooms, a cafe, a library, maker spaces, retail spaces, doctors offices, and more.

For those that don’t live in the most urban centers of Nashville and most certainly across the ten county region that makes up Middle Tennessee, access to nearby affirming services, programs, and cultural opportunities are extremely limited. LGBTQIA+ people continually experience harmful effects of being residents of the state of Tennessee. The ongoing attacks towards our transgender population through insulting governmental overreach, is just one of the many examples. 

Organizations throughout the state, including many wonderful national partners, work tirelessly to develop more awareness around the lived experience of LGBTQIA+ people. Still, even with their advocacy there is so much that needs to be done to ensure that each and every member of our community has the opportunity to thrive. This is a fundamental shift in the way that our community works; it requires small steps towards an audacious vision that is attainable with set specific goals.

We believe that by developing impact oriented initiatives, we can live in a place where we all belong and thrive.