Last year, Music City PrEP Clinic project manager Drew Morrow made a Reddit post.
“It was just like, ‘Hey, calling all farmers,’” Morrow tells the Scene. “‘This is what we’re thinking of doing, we want to hear from you.’”
Now the events manager for the sexual health clinic, Morrow — along with Jeremy Johnson, Diversity Health’s vice president of marketing — inherited the idea for the Gay Farmers Market from a former executive director. The goal, says Johnson, was a space “for the community to come together.”
“[The former executive director] thought that there was a really big need to have a space like any other farmers market, but … our own,” Johnson explains. “Products that would really relate to the people that would be shopping at it, that [they would] identify with.”
The initial feedback on the Reddit post was mixed — Morrow, laughing, says the number one response he got was, “Aren’t all farmers markets gay?” But last year saw a successful inaugural half-season run and a nighttime Christmas pop-up series. The market takes place biweekly on the PrEP Clinic’s property in East Nashville’s East End neighborhood.
“We weren’t aware that there was going to be such a positive response to it,” says Johnson.
Johnson says the market has been a “learn-as-we-go situation” — the team has learned to balance a few staples with curated offerings for each date, so it’s not the same market every time. Now grown into a full season that runs every other week May through October, the Gay Farmers Market provides a unique community space with a fun, family-friendly feel. Morrow describes it as “a little more fabulous” than a traditional market: There are drag shows at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. at every market, and patrons can buy drinks from nearby Canvas Lounge and sip in the parking lot while they shop.
“We’re a unique farmers market in that people come and hang out all day,” says Johnson. “They don’t just swing through. The bar’s open.”
But the market also challenges misconceptions about what queerness and allyship look like, especially in a state like Tennessee. As Morrow points out, there tends to be an assumption that “good old boys” dominate the agriculture industry — but in his words, “There are so many queer farmers out there.” The market creates a way for patrons to get to know the people behind their food, and to sustain the work of local farmers and makers who share their values.
“Knowing that you can come out and support your people, buy their products, is really special,” he says.
Red Flynn found the market last year through Reddit and reached out to Morrow. She and her wife live on a half-acre of land in Kingston Springs, where they keep chickens. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Flynn started home-preserving fruits and peppers from her garden. Eventually, the side hustle grew, and she’s been selling locally sourced, seasonally crafted jams and jellies under the banner of Redford Farms since 2023.
The Gay Farmers Market was Flynn’s first farmers market residency, and it has allowed her to advance her jam-making career and make new connections in the industry. Now she says it’s her favorite market to work.
“It’s really nice to feel like there’s a community space for queer people — not just in June, but all summer long.”
Not all of the market’s vendors are members of the queer community, but Johnson says the ones who aren’t are allies for one simple reason: “They showed up, and they want to participate.” The straight participants, says Morrow, form connections with the community through their participation in the market — building vital bridges.
“Some of these straight people that do come out and participate ... cut to 10 markets later, and they’re out there waving their dollars at the drag queens, and they’ve made friends with all the other vendors,” Morrow explains. “Even if you’re just coming to sell your wares and this doesn’t matter at all to you, now some of these people have gay friends, queer friends, lesbian friends.”
That sense of camaraderie is something that Flynn echoes: “It doesn’t feel like a competition.”
“I’m buddies with a lot of the vendors, [and] we all check up on each other,” Flynn says.
“Everyone is welcome. Everyone is so cool.”
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