Pride: A Conversation With Marisa Richmond

Last year, when Mayor Megan Barry appointed her to the Metro Human Relations Commission, Marisa Richmond became the first transgender city board member in Nashville history, following years as a lobbyist and activist on behalf of the transgender community. Since then, the city has seen issues of race and policing thrust to the forefront of local discussion, while LGBT rights have continually been threatened by the state legislature. Richmond spoke to the Scene about the work she’s doing, the era she’s doing it in, and why it’s crucial to do it here.

The Metro Human Relations Commission is a pretty diverse group, by design, obviously. What kind of unique perspective do you think you’ve been able to bring to it?

Specifically, I’m the first from the transgender community. There were already two other members from the LGB community when I joined, so I added a third voice, but specifically a transgender perspective that nobody else had. And then also, as an African-American, I provide that sort of intersectionality insight. I’m coming from multiple communities, so I can bring that perspective as well in some of our discussions. I don’t think anybody necessarily believes that it’s like an either-or proposition, but the fact that I have a foot in more than one community is a reminder that there is intersectionality of a lot of the issues that do arise in Nashville. 

Doing the kind of work you’ve done in Nashville and in Tennessee, specifically on behalf of the LGBT community, there’s always some debate or something to push back on from the state legislature. It’s endless. But for years, at the same time, things seemed to be moving the other direction at the federal level. Now with Donald Trump in office, how his presidency is going to affect the LGBT community is maybe unclear. But in general, how have you viewed the past year, which has been so tumultuous? 

As a matter of fact, I was actually in Washington, D.C., last week. Last Friday, I was on Capitol Hill visiting several congressional offices, and we were talking mostly legislation rather than presidential policy. But it was a transgender lobby day, and there were 200 hundred of us from 40 states. And one of the things that we’re concerned about is the reversal of a lot of the policies, and in fact I think the commerce department just yesterday reversed some of their policies with regard to inclusion of LGBT people. So we’ve been alarmed by this trend, but at the same time we’re seeing the courts and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, they have not yet reversed policies, and we just had another victory in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in an Illinois case involving a transgender student and access to facilities. So we’re continuing to move forward on those levels.

For people in Tennessee, obviously, we’re very concerned, because we don’t have the state-level protections that people in Oregon or California or other states have. 

Given the atmosphere here in recent years, even with as much progress as seems to have been made at a national level, I don’t think anyone would blame someone from the LGBT community or other marginalized communities for leaving Tennessee and going to one of the states you just mentioned that have those protections. Why is it so important to you to do the work you do and stay here and do it in this state? 

I do understand why people do leave. I try to discourage them. But for starters, there are already good people in those states who are doing that work. We need people in states like Tennessee to continue fighting. We shouldn’t just throw in the towel and give up. There are a lot of young people who are in schools, we’re trying to make their lives better to help them get an education so they can graduate and go on to achieve whatever their dreams may be. 

And they don’t have a choice. They can’t leave. 

Precisely. And we don’t want them to drop out or run away or anything just to say, “I’ve got to get out of Tennessee.” We have to make sure that they have the opportunity to achieve their dreams, and there’s no reason why anybody should ever abandon any community. They should feel welcome and safe in every community throughout the country, and certainly we want that to be the case here in Tennessee.