About Hayco pride

Our Purpose

The intention for the work of HayCo Pride is to:

1. Fill in gaps of missing narrative representation and community support for LGBTQIA+ folks in Haywood County by offering mutual aid, cultural events, and shared spaces that nurture queer joy and encourage reciprocity through service to our community, while challenging homophobic and transphobic rhetoric and false narratives.
2. Celebrate and uplift the history and diverse identities of LGBTQIA+ community members across Haywood County through the collection, amplification, and preservation of our personal stories and experiences.
3. Foster a sense of awareness, safety, and inclusion for community members that have been historically oppressed and marginalized — especially those at the intersection of marginalized experiences among the LGBTQIA+ spectrum: elders and youths; Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color; poor and working class folks; and/or people with disabilities.

Honor & Build Power on the Margins – We recognize that when our work centers the voices and experiences of those who are at the margins of society’s oppressive structures, the resulting impact of our work benefits all of us.

Think & Act Collectively & Collaboratively – We understand that we save and are saved by each other. We know that the collective intuitive wisdom that people and communities held originally (Indigenous nations and cultures) has been systematically erased in the service of supremacy and profit. We acknowledge our responsibility for teaching each other and ourselves to collaborate and act collectively. We find guidance in people and communities whose resilience has preserved that intuitive wisdom. We build strong and authentic relationships that enable us to act in synchronicity with each other from a place of shared wisdom. We learn from our mistakes rather than condemning them or ignoring them.

Seek Connection & Curiosity – As part of our dedication to countering a culture of false narratives and fear mongering rhetoric, we are committed to noticing when our fear shows up, naming it, feeling it, and seeking to address it in ways that nurture connection and relationships. When we notice our fear, we ask ourselves: Is there a question I can ask about this? What would build connection here? Relationship? Love?

Know Yourself – Being in relationship with others requires us to be in relationship with ourselves, to nurture a level of self-awareness that allows us to be clear about what we are called to do, what we know how to do, and where we need to develop. We support each other as we work to address the effects of trauma and the dis-ease associated with the culture of supremacy.

These principles are inspired by the offerings of Dismantling Racism Works. In addition to the offerings of DR Works, we also support each other in navigating from these guiding principles by leaning on the resources provided by the Turning Towards Each Other Workbook, the Dare to Lead Workbook, the Courageous Conversations Toolkit; and the Stoke Collective Creating Cultures of Care & Resilience Guide.