‘Tracy knows how to take good care of us’
NowKalamazoo | By Ben Hoger
Published December 17, 2024
From housing access to clothing options to a bigger Pride Festival during a time of increased anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, OutFront Kalamazoo looks to maintain momentum as they said goodbye to Executive Director Tracy Hall.
The team at OutFront Kalamazoo credits outgoing Executive Director Tracy Hall (she/they) with tripling services and expanding programming – and securing the funding to support that growth – in less than three years as leader of the Kalamazoo nonprofit, which serves the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and allied community.
Now they’re looking to fill those shoes.
This month, Hall began a new role as the deputy director at Ferndale-based Affirmations LGBTQ+ Community Center, a hub for southeast Michigan LGBTQ+ communities and their allies for the last 35 years.
Hall said she’s unable to single out one specific program or service she is most proud of during her time at OutFront. She instead extolls the collaboration amongst its staff members who work on the organization’s many projects.
“I have learned from each of them,” Hall said. “OutFront Kalamazoo’s staff are dedicated to the work, the LGBTQ+ community, and improving the lives of everyone who engages with services, whether that’s online or coming through the front door.”
OutFront’s Communications and Advocacy Manager Heather Sanford (she/her) said under Hall’s leadership it tripled its services and programming, broke records for foot traffic at Arcadia Creek Festival Place with its annual Pride Festival in June, and established the Legacy House Program which addresses housing insecurity for queer youth between 18 and 24 years old.
“To be able to do that, we have to be able to staff that,” Sanford said of the increase in services. “And to be able to staff that, we have to fund that. And Tracy did a lot of work to get the funding where it needed to be, to be able to support that much rapid growth at once.”
A major contributor to that funding is the Kalamazoo Pride Festival, which began in 2008 and has been held annually in June since then, aside from a brief pause during the pandemic. The all-ages festival includes entertainers who represent the LGBTQ+ community as well as vendors and booths that often include freebies and activities. On opening night this year, lines stretched along four city blocks in advance of the festival’s annual Mx./Ms./Mr. Kalamazoo Pride Pageant.
“Pride is our largest fundraiser of the year and it’s a celebration of queer identities and queer experiences and queer joy,” Sanford said. “It’s an opportunity for members of our community to just come together and be their authentic selves in a space that they know they’re going to be accepted for themselves.”
Challenging and Rewarding Work
“Tracy is a problem solver,” said Connar Klock (they/them), drop-in center facilitator, “as well as someone who cares very deeply about each and every one of us as an individual.”
Klock said Hall’s door was always open to make a connection with someone or just listen to someone vent. But it’s the support, Klock said, that is the most important.
“Sometimes while we’re doing this work, it is very, very difficult on us because we are all queer people doing work for other queer people,” they said. “Sometimes we’ll get a call and it’s something that might be triggering to our own traumas or something that we ourselves have to experience or are experiencing actively. And Tracy knows how to take good care of us and remind us that that can be hard. She doesn’t try to pretend that it’s not.”
Director of Programs and Outreach Michael Cleggs-Arnott (he/him), who has been with OutFront for nearly ten years, said Hall not only helped to expand the organization but to strengthen it as well.
“Tracy came in and really took the time to not only look at what the community was needing but also took the time to look at what the staff was needing,” he said. “And both of those two key components are really important, because in order for us to do the job effectively and do what we need to do, we need to be supported.”
He said the developments over the past two and a half years are a testament to the effort that Hall has put into cultivating the culture of OutFront.
“We have more staff than we’ve ever had,” he said – around 16 team members now. “When I came on board we had four staffers.”
Both Klock and Cleggs-Arnott said they are hoping for the same thing in Hall’s successor: someone who will take time to get to know the staff, expand programming, and support the organization in the changes it wants to make in the community. OutFront will accept applications until the position is filled.
“Having the opportunity to have more staff and expand the programming makes the entire community better,” Cleggs-Arnott said.
OutCloset, Legacy House, and a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community
One OutFront program making a big difference in the LGBTQ+ community is the OutCloset, a quarterly clothing swap event where people donate used clothing for anyone in the community who needs it. Participants pay what they can for these items.
“The purpose of the OutCloset is to provide accessible gender-affirming clothing options to the community, because when you are trying to rebuild your wardrobe as an adult, it’s expensive,” Sanford said. “We suggest donating what you can, but there’s no hard cost on it – it’s a donate-what-you-can kind of situation. So if you don’t have anything to donate, that’s okay too – you just take what you need.”
Hall is particularly proud of addressing health disparities by addressing the lack of housing. Hall said being unhoused or having unstable housing can lead to, or contribute to, existing health and wellness issues.
The Legacy House, which has the goal of preparing unhoused queer youth to obtain permanent housing, is one such program. Current funding only allows OutFront to assist six people at a time, and though she wishes they could help more, Hall reminds herself that every little bit counts. Applications are open at www.outfrontkzoo.org/legacyhouse.
“We’re still helping six folks who otherwise would be on the streets and with no real safe space to go here in Kalamazoo,” she said.
OutFront’s offices also serve a safe-space function during office hours.
“They can come seek respite if they just want to come in and have water or have a snack or to seek peace,” she said. “Especially when we are downtown and we have a lot of folks that are facing housing insecurity, (we offer) a space where people can feel safe.”
Creating that sense of safety has not come easily for Hall and the staff at OutFront, who have received hateful and threatening phone calls and emails and have seen their building vandalized. Hall said these kinds of threats have escalated since she was the program director at what was then called the Kalamazoo Gay and Lesbian Resource Center from 2010 to 2012.
“So that’s been an obstacle,” she said. “Especially when we’re thinking about how many of us are part of the LGBTQ community that work for OutFront, and then having to hear those attacks while trying to be there for our community has been emotional – it’s been tough.”
One of the more significant events happened during the first winter under Hall’s leadership. OutFront had just launched a program in partnership with the YWCA to offer gender-affirming products to anyone in Kalamazoo County who needed them. A video about the program that had been posted to TikTok caught the attention of a YouTuber who produced a video accusing OutFront staff of being pedophiles and included phone numbers and email addresses for the office.
“I was the person answering the phones, emails, and mail during what I call ‘The Hate Mail Times,’” Klock said. We received thousands of messages and phone calls. Thousands. From as far away as Finland, Turkey, and South Africa.”
As a result, OutFront was briefly assigned an FBI liaison to whom they reported any negative communication and received and developed new procedures for how incoming mail would be opened. Later that same year, a bullet was shot through the front door of the OutFront office.
“So we had to stop and start a lot of times to address the security issues that we were facing,” Sanford said. “We had all these other big projects we were working on and had to keep stopping and starting. We had to pause and address just our basic everyday safety to be able to do our everyday jobs.”
“But we also had an outpouring of love from our community,” Klock said. “I had to create an email folder labeled ‘hate mail,’ and then we started getting so many messages supporting us and I created a folder called ‘love mail.’ People were dropping off baked goods and buying us pizza and having it delivered at the office and really trying to help shepherd us through. There’s just as much light and love in the world as there is this hatred.”
Since the 2024 presidential election, Hall said OutFront has received calls from many community members asking questions about things like gender identity and gender-affirming care, and whether current rights – including marriage and being able to change your name – might be revoked.
“At the end of the day we have a lot of challenges,” Hall said. “If things get rolled back and we go back to the days where you could fire somebody because of their gender identity or sexual orientation – that’s huge in my mind. The unknown is scary.”
Returning home to the east side of Michigan
Hall grew up in Metro Detroit and said one of the first things she’s going to do in her new work environment is to attend a Detroit Tigers day game by herself. But if she does end up moving there permanently, she said she won’t stay away from Kalamazoo altogether. She said it is difficult for her to see herself living in another city – so much so that she jokes about not actually moving.
“I love Kalamazoo,” Hall said. “And I’m not coming to grips yet with having to leave. And maybe I don’t. Maybe I end up loving to commute as well. I’m proud of the work that I’ve been able to be part of, whether it’s here at OutFront or different community projects that I’ve been part of.”
As difficult as it is for Hall to think about leaving Kalamazoo and Outfront, she said she is excited to grow in her new role. The longtime local leader, who’s also a former Kalamazoo County commissioner, calls her time on the commission “absolutely a privilege,” but said she’ll be relieved to not have to feel like she is “on” every time she walks out the door.
“Sometimes I still like to go to D&W in my pajamas,” she said with a smile. “And it’s difficult.”
Original Link: https://nowkalamazoo.org/2024/12/the-unknown-is-scary/