CHAUNCEY, Ohio — A new group, the Chauncey Gays, aims to grow LGBTQ+ community in the small village of less than 1,000 residents, with the group’s first event to take place on Saturday.
From noon to 2 p.m., the group will host a Pride Month celebration at the Chauncey Community Park, featuring the Athens County Public Libraries Bookmobile.
“I’m hoping the event will bring lots of people, and we can see each other, and I think that there’s a lot of empowerment and just being visible,” said Evelyn Nagy, a Chauncey Gays member. “From there, I think that talking to each other, we’ll figure out what’s next, or what can we improve on, or what should we do to help Chauncey become more welcoming for everyone.”
Abby Hearne, a member of the group, said, “We just want folks to come and have a good time, and give us suggestions about what they want to do more and see more of, and feel more love and connection in the community.”
The group formed after several members successfully advocated for various initiatives at Chauncey Village Council, beginning with a resolution for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza.
Hearne said she and other organizers were encouraged by organizing in Athens, which led Athens City Council to pass a Palestine ceasefire resolution, “to then also propose one in Chauncey.”
Nagy, a village council member, helped bring the resolution to the council, along with council member Connaught Cullen.
Several Chauncey community members, most of whom belong to LGBTQ+ communities, attended council meetings to advocate for the ceasefire resolution.
At the same time, Nagy was also working to pass ordinances aimed at establishing more rights for tenants in the village.
“I had lived in Chauncey for years and had not participated in the government in that way until the ceasefire resolution,” Hearne said. “Since we were there, we decided to jump on board with the other ordinances that were regarding housing at the time in Chauncey.”
The advocacy of the mainly LGBTQ+ Chauncey community members to support her proposed resolutions and ordinances encouraged Nagy to expand an initial proposal on tenant protections to also include LGBTQ+ protections.
For Nagy, having other community members in the room to advocate for her suggested ordinances was crucial.
“When I’m met with adversarial thinking … I don’t know what to do,” Nagy said. “I get kind of triggered and angry and then I shut down. But what I met was a group of people that keep pushing and using words. … If I was on my own and had no support, I would shut down and stay there and not move forward.”
Now, Nagy said she feels “empowered to go to other municipalities and, and talk to them” about establishing LGBTQ+ and tenant protections.
Chauncey Gays formed naturally from attendance at village council meetings, Hearne said. Many of those attending the meetings were already friends; through connections at the Chauncey Public Library, they realized they were also connected to many LGBTQ+ youth in the community.
“We were just sort of like, what if we try to uplift their ideas as older queers in the community?” Hearne said.
For Hearne — who recently moved to Athens after “about three or four” years in the village — cultivating more LGBTQ+ community in Chauncey was also important on a personal level.
“The people in Chauncey work really hard, share resources, and look out for each other, and that was really cool and valuable to be a part of,” Hearne said in a text message. “It can improve, absolutely, especially in regards to being more welcoming to queer and other minority folks but … I just needed more community and connection than I was getting in Chauncey.”
However, Hearne hopes that the Chauncey Gays can bring more sense of LGBTQ+ community to the village so others don’t feel the need to leave.
“The need for more community and connection is something that (many) people in Chauncey feel despite if they’re queer or not,” Hearne said in a text message. “Of course our focus is for queer folks but I hope it expands or causes ripples for the community as a whole to invest in building more community and connection.”
For Nagy, that starts on Saturday, and she encouraged people interested in joining the group to attend their Pride Month event.
“It’s going to be small and enjoyable, and we’re just really excited to be together,” Nagy said. “Please join us for a day of celebration for everyone.”
