Nikki Alexander, the executive director for Black Pride NOLA, says she founded this community to create a space for everyone to feel safe and come together.
“[From] personal experiences being in spaces that were quote, unquote safe spaces for the LGBTQ community, or if they were LGBTQ spaces, they weren’t necessarily safe or accepting of a brown and black community,” Alexander said.
She says she wants to build a community for everyone that doesn’t discriminate because that is something the LGBTQ+ community needs now more than ever.
“This is not a space for just queer women or queer men or trans,” Alexander said. “This is a space for everybody.”
Members of the LGBTQ+ community say safe spaces are communities they can go to where they feel like they can be themselves and not be discriminated against or feel like they are different in any way.
According to Shannon Novak, the founder and director of The Safe Space Alliance, a non-profit that helps create spaces all over the world, these spaces are crucial for everyone, but especially in places in the world that being gay is illegal. These communities not only provide a sense of comfort, but they also provide a sense of belonging and understanding.
“For these communities this space is critically important and can be a matter of life and death,” Novak said. “Closet queer communities (globally) also value digital/online/encrypted safe space as an outlet and lifeline.”
Novak says the need for safe spaces may fluctuate from country to country, but in times like after the U.S. presidential election they have seen an influx of the need and want for safe spaces in the U.S.
“There has been a huge spike in people adding spaces to the online directory post election, and we are being flooded with queries/calls for support from the US,” Novak said.
Senior political science major Grayson Gustin says that as a gay person, a safe space provides a community that has shared experiences, and they are important to ensuring people like Gustin have somewhere to go and feel seen and heard.
Gustin also says that the communities they have built or go to are important for their mental health.
“I think safe spaces for me as a gay person are really important because it allows queer people to come together and like, bask in our own community and our culture,” Gustin said. “Something which we’ve been marginalized for our entire lives.“
Alexander says Black Pride NOLA provides events and outreach the community can use and not feel judged or discriminated against. They are able to collaborate with others in New Orleans to build an awareness of certain LGBTQ+ topics that might be overlooked and not talked about, she said.
Their biggest event is a pride event that happens every June, where they have a festival and educational programs helping people learn and come together to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
“We make it a thing to bring in other orgs so that people know where they can go for different things,” Alexander said. “Because we don’t provide a lot of things, but we are connected to a lot of different orgs that do have different services. So we can say, hey, if you need this, you can go here.”
Novak says being able to help a marginalized community like the LGBTQ+ community is important and that safe spaces, no matter where they are, hold importance to building community and understanding for one another.
“Safe spaces are important full stop – not more or less,” he said.
