Conversation over Coffee hopes to build LGBT community

By Karen Parr-Moody

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Many young people who are coming to terms with being gay discover only loneliness, confusion or outside repercussions. Such problems could be eradicated if only they had a community to support them.

It is this belief that spurred local graphic designer David Shelton, who is gay, to form the Conversation Over Coffee organization. The APSU Gay-Straight Alliance will host the next Conversation over Coffee event on Tuesday, April 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Morgan University Center on the APSU campus.

Shelton will host the event along with Tyler King. Its primary focus will be to discuss the question of, “What can we do to strengthen the LGBT community in the Clarksville area?”

Several local pastors, along with representatives from the LGBT community, will make presentations. There will be a panel discussion afterward.

“There is no strong support network here to help those who are in the LGBT community overcome their issues of denial or of being unaccepted by peers and family members,” Shelton said. That is a key issue he underscores when arguing for a stronger support network.

“This is the example I’ve given,” Shelton said. “What happens if we have a situation in which someone is 16 to 17 years old and they come out to their parents and they kick them out? Who do they talk to? Where do they go? Being in a conservative area like this, there are people who do have these questions.”

This event is free and open to those who are LGBT and their supporters. For more information visit www.conversationovercoffee.com. Also located on the site is a survey that allows people to help the group gauge what the community wants regarding LGBT support.

Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.