Franklin Pride
LGBTQ group measures progressivism in Williamson County BY CEDRIC DENT JR.
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local effort launched and driven by parents of gender-nonbinary kids, PFLAG Franklin, has significantly impacted Williamson County and surrounding areas through advocacy and support. Its own members have been pleasantly surprised to see the community embrace them as much as it has. Sharon Collins founded the Franklin chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in 2012 with regular monthly meetings beginning that same year at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on West Main Street in downtown Franklin, which is when its current Board President Ginny Bailey came onboard — both for similar reasons: “Parents have to come out of the closet as well,” as Bailey put it. The organization, since renamed Franklin Pride, supports the social wellness of LGBTQ persons, their family and their friends who are enduring the challenge of an ill-informed and often unwelcoming society by fighting prejudicial treatment and advocating gender equity. Robert McNamara, former Franklin Pride board president and current board member, told the Home Page he is surprised to see Williamson County’s progressivism fuel the chapter’s growth so far. “For me, the big surprise is our new social groups popping up in Williamson County in Franklin, Spring Hill and even Columbia,” McNamara says. “Every month there is at least one new family unit reaching out for support or comfort. And the board members step up to the challenge every time. I have never seen a more dedicated group of women dig into the root of the problem in every situation that comforts them.” The group has expanded and incorporated under its own name, Franklin Pride, as a 501(c) (3) separate from PFLAG, though PFLAG National still provides support. Even the pandemic has failed to stop the group’s growth as Zoom meetings, board members feel, have presented a unique opportunity, albeit a challenge, to expand those who are included in the meets,
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GUIDE TO WILLIAMSON COUNTY
Ginny Bailey, Robert McNamara and Marjorie Halbert
reaching people from surrounding rural areas in Maury County and Columbia, for example, and many attendees have also been inviting friends and family from out of state as well. Approaching its 10-year anniversary, Franklin Pride’s monthly meetings have grown from about eight attendees to between 30 and 35 prior to introducing the Zoom component, which has sustained about 20 attendees on average throughout the pandemic. The organization’s evolution comes a long way from when Collins and founding member Marjorie Halbert — a former board president — first created the organization and discovered PFLAG as a viable means by which to do so. “The first milestone was getting a viable chapter up and running in Franklin,” Halbert says. “I also think reaching out to local therapists was a way we let the community know that a support group existed. Almost no one knew we were here, so talking to school counselors, therapists and doctors’ offices was a way for us to reach out to family and friends who needed support.” Franklin Pride’s maturation has pushed through a period of significant growing pains
for Franklin apropos of diversity and inclusion as the city has weathered the storm of both municipal and state policy in a court of public opinion. Bailey says she feels the city of Franklin was more ready to think outside the box on matters of diversity of inclusion, after endeavoring to complete the Fuller Story project. She explained that Mayor Ken Moore and others were exceedingly helpful to facilitate the Franklin Pride Festival. “I think City Hall was ready for us because of the work they’ve done on [the Fuller Story project], and I’m just so proud of the city of Franklin for doing that, for working with community leaders,” Bailey says. “Seeing that was happening, we thought, here’s another place where the city of Franklin can get it right.” The community strained under the weight of its decision to provide context around its 1899 Public Square Civil War monument with plaques providing more information on the African-American experience — all of this much to the chagrin of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and others. Franklin continues to battle over critical race theory in Williamson County Public School curriculum with facilita-
ERIC ENGLAND
