Our story in a nutshell… by our home stands a post with our house numbers on it, attached to the top of that post we had a Rainbow Pride flag. Nine different times in the span of a year we woke up in the morning and our flag was ripped from the post. Leaving only the metal grommets where it used to be. We talked to the police who said they would look into it but it is really impossible to know who was sneaking around in the middle of the night.
We replaced flag after flag, and finally had had enough we contacted the FBI and reported a hate crime, and things calmed down for a while. A few months later when flag #9 was stolen, we decided that we were going to do something constructive about this.
While this was all going on we learned later that a couple of our neighbors were having similar issues with a flag of theirs. We were stopped by the two ladies at Walmart in Creston, and was asked how we kept our pride flag looking so nice. We said we had to keep replacing it because it kept getting stolen.
That was the day we decided that if we were not the only LGBT people in the area having problems of this type there had to be more. So the idea of the center was put into action. We have added a few new special touches to our property We replaced the original pole with the house numbers sporting a new born this way flag, added a 15’ flag pole in the side yard, with a rainbow pride flag, and a flag from the Human Rights Campaign which is one of many of the organizations we are receiving information from to help further our work.
Also we have added some new multi colored flood lights, but the most important addition was the 8 camera surveillance system that now runs 24/7 recording every square inch of our property. Its all backed up on a DVR and can be accessed live or recordings from our cell phones. Needless to say the word must have reached where it needed because there has not been any more incidents as of today.
So from a negative act of hate and rebellion a safe space was born “The Adair Co. GLBT Recource Center” ( a 501 (C) 3 Non-Profit Corporation), Is alive and well. We hope in the not to very distant future to have an onsite permanent structure so people can come and attend meetings, share stories, hopes, dreams, and even heartaches. For far too long has our community lived in the “closet” of Normal life.
Normal is just a setting on the clothes dryer, it is the differences in everyone that makes us unique, and brings variety to life, and enriches the lives of everyone. LGBT + Allies.
