In WJCT’s StoryCorpsOutLoud series, we’re hearing from Jacksonville residents who are part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Each week, WJCT’s Lindsey Kilbride shares a conversation recorded by the StoryCorps oral history project. All the participants are linked by the local LGBT youth support group, JASMYN.
Cindy Watson is the Executive Director of JASMYN and she's been there from the beginning, that's 20 years.
Watson and her wife Garnett Harrison remember the early days of JASMYN, when the community was far less accepting.
Cindy: The local community was putting together an HIV prevention plan. We came to the meetings because we knew that HIV was such a critical issue for young people in Jacksonville, and young people, we brought young people to the meetings to speak about what their specific needs were for HIV prevention.
But what happened is the Baptist churches learned that the, Duval County Health Department was holding these meetings to talk about HIV prevention, and that there were gay people there saying that there needed to be comprehensive sex education, and access to condoms and the kinds of things we know are effective.
And, so, the churches began to bus, busloads of people to those community meetings. And so, the first meeting that we went to, we had been going to meetings, but the first one where we walked in the room, and it was absolutely packed and the church busses were out in the parking lot, and we realized that we were greatly outnumbered, and the crowd was hostile. And here we were, you know, two or three adults walking in with about a dozen, you know, gay and lesbian and trans youth, who were ready to speak amidst all that hostility.
It was wild, it was a bit scary, but the young people, our young people would not back down.
Garnett: Right
C: They were absolutely willing and ready to stand up and speak for what they knew they needed and their peers needed to be safe.
..You know, just walking through the parking lot after having been exposed to that much hatred and hostility.
G: Right
C: It was intimidating and scary, but that didn't stop us. We have always been a little bit protective of the young people. So, if their gonna go out there if, they want to march in the parade, and really be out there, we would not want them to do that by themselves. We would be right there beside them.
G: Right ...
C: Remember all of those pride parades, when I, you know, I had the drum and I did all the chants and...
G: Yeah I remember that ..
C: And all those young people, so excited to be open and out on the streets in Jacksonville, Florida, particularly in the '90s when you know, I just, I just remember all that hostility. And they would always be really bold and like well we have to do something well you know we can't be quiet. So, I took always a lot of support and direction from the young peoples' boldness, even when I didn't see myself as a bold person.
These interviews were recorded at StoryCorps, a national initiative to record and collect stories of everyday people. Excerpts were selected and produced by Lindsey Kilbride. Next week StoryCorp OutLoud continues with the story of a transgender Jacksonville man and his grandmother's reaction to his revelation.
