Phil Cobucci
When the Scene rounded up recommendations for what Nashville needs for a cover story in February, we noted the lack of an LGBTQ community center that would give queer folks the place of belonging that other cities have. Readers responded affirmatively. Nashville has had small-scale spaces in the past — OutCentral on Church Street, the Rainbow Community Center and other unofficial but still important gathering places — but nothing formal has persevered.
Over the course of five months in 2019, Nashville Pride conducted the Community Visioning Project, meeting with more than 2,000 LGBTQ folks in Middle Tennessee for structured feedback sessions to develop recommendations for how to secure a stable future for the LGBTQ community. The Scene attended one session, and the conversations were lively and passionate. Participants expressed frustration with the lack of housing, jobs and health care. They also came up with creative ways to solve problems in the future, expressing something close to hope.
The report published by Pride — and available to read at nashvillepride.org/cvp — shows that 84 percent of participants prioritized a “centralized, safe, sober space for the LGBTQIA+ community” as a need. Other priorities include access to affordable and affirming health care, programming and resources for young adults and older adults, a centralized collection of resources and more year-round visibility of LGBTQIA+ life in the region.
Phil Cobucci, who spearheaded the Community Visioning Project, spoke with the Scene in 2019 and expressed the urgency of obtaining broad community support for LGBTQ Middle Tennesseans: “Who’s going to step up to the plate and help create this? What organizations are going to step up to the plate and say, ‘We see that there’s a need in this specific arena, and we are best charged to carry that torch’?”
Ultimately, Cobucci decided to found that organization himself. It’s called Inclusion Tennessee, abbreviated as In|TN, and it launched last week with a bold vision: building a Nashville LGBTQIA+ community center with satellite services throughout the region.
“We want to build a space that we know people want to be in,” says Cobucci, “and where services and resources exist to touch every part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. … This needs to be a space where people can be connected into the services and resources that allow them to be a fully present member of our society.”
These services and resources come from the Community Visioning Project report and include health care services; small-business incubators; fitness facilities; youth, elder and family programming; housing; workforce development; education; performing arts spaces; respite care for people who have just had gender-confirmation surgeries — the possibilities run the gamut from grand to intimate and everything in between. Cobucci also acknowledges that urban growth is pushing many people outside the city, to areas where resources are already more scarce.
The board, which is led by Cobucci, Dr. Quinton Walker and Meredith Fortney, includes members from a variety of fields, such as health care, education, nonprofit, branding, marketing and government. The organization is being incubated by The Center for Contemplative Justice, a group that “fosters unique justice startups.”
Cobucci has suffered several losses since 2020 — his home was destroyed in the deadly March 2020 tornado, his service animal passed away, and his marketing business suffered due to the pandemic. “When people, in general, are dealt more than they can handle,” Cobucci says, “it allows them to see what really matters. And for me, it opened my eyes and allowed my path to be made clear.”
“If Roe v. Wade goes away,” he says, “Republicans will continue to come at us for other things that they feel that they can chip away. And that is an incredible fear of mine. I think that the only way that we as a community can create change is by us coming together and ... modeling around ideas of collective impact to create the change.”
Board member Dawn Cornelius wants the nonprofit to help LGBTQ people to be acknowledged for their many identities. “When I walk into a room,” she says, “the first thing people see is that I’m a Black woman, and it’s not easily identifiable that I’m same-gender-loving. But it’s still part of my identity.”
She “envisions In|TN to be a place where wherever you are, whatever your individual story is — and it all looks different — that everyone has a place, and there is this sense that we have some shared stories that obviously include sexual orientation [and] identity. There’s a whole lot more that binds us than that alone. When that part of us needs to be seen and needs to be validated and recognized or have a space for, In|TN becomes that place.”
In|TN has partnered with the Civic Design Center to solicit further feedback from the community and conduct a feasibility study that will help put the next steps in place. The Civic Design Center has helped facilitate many such initiatives, including the recent The Fairgrounds Nashville plan and the park at Casa Azafrán. Their work will kick off at Nashville Pride on Saturday, where they’ll be soliciting feedback from attendees at the festival. They’re planning more engagements throughout the summer. The organizations hope to present their findings and next steps on Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day.
A community center of these proportions will have a high price tag, and it’s difficult to estimate what that will be. Cobucci says that if they’re able to purchase an existing building and renovate, it might cost around $10 million. But buying a plot of land and starting from scratch could shoot up to $40 million — both daunting sums. Partnering with organizations, individuals and Metro government can get the needle moving.
“If we do a good job of showing the value of this, engagement also builds support,” says CDC design director Eric Hoke. “The more support it has, the more favorable the project would be.”
Another initiative of In|TN will answer a call from the Community Visioning Project: bringing together LGBTQ-mission-focused organizations, as well as those that touch LGBTQ life, to meet quarterly and collaborate. In|TN has worked with the Center for Nonprofit Management to build a comprehensive map of these organizations and get the ball rolling. In another initiative, In|TN is working with Vanderbilt University Medical Center to provide education around navigating the health care system, which is challenging for LGBTQ patients.
“We just need the right people who can support this initiative,” says Cobucci. “And it’s governmental. It’s independent funders. It’s people who can tag onto a vision and say, ‘Yes, I want to join this fight.’ ”
The Nashville Pride Festival, the city’s queer history, a proposed LGBTQ community center and more
