Desmera Gatewood: Why do you do this work—and who do you see yourself doing it for?

Raye Dooley: I started doing LGBTQ+ liberation work because, growing up in the South, I did not know a single out LGBTQ adult. I certainly did not know other young, openly queer and trans folks. Because of this, it took me a painfully long time to find myself. I want something different for queer and trans people now—I want our people to be able to see parts of themself reflected in others from a young age. I have two young kids, and they deserve to grow up in a world of possibility, one where they know that they will be celebrated for all parts of who they are. I have the responsibility to help build this kind of community for my own kids, and for other people’s kids too. That’s the work we do at the center.

Can you share some concrete examples of the work the center is doing and the impact you’ve seen it have?

If there’s one thing I want people to take away, it is that the center does incredible work with very little. From a food pantry that distributes 2,000 pounds of food a month to Pride: Durham, NC, which draws 10,000+ people, our incredibly talented and dedicated staff and community volunteers make so much possible. When people need food, we feed them. When people are unsafe in their homes, we return their agency. When people have nowhere to turn in communities far away, we open our arms a little bit wider.

Some anecdotes:

The Joiful Bodies Closet is a free shop supporting identity exploration and affirmation for all. It offers clothing, personal care products, home goods, and more. Recently, an unhoused community member who was shopping the closet reflected that they are so grateful for the center because it is the only place they can be themself. 

The Southern Queer Families Network is an antiviolence project that brings families together to, one, share joy, two, build power, and, three, keep each other safe. At a recent meetup, a family with a young trans daughter who just came out was able to connect with another family whose trans daughter is just a year older!

Voguing for Empowerment is a program of the LGBTQ+ Youth Center of Durham. It supports young people to experience self-empowerment and learn embodiment as they practice new dance techniques and choreography, all while honoring and centering the community of voguing and ballroom. The parent of a Voguing for Empowerment attendee reached out to let us know that in addition to it being so good for her daughter to have a place to dance, it has been equally impactful for the parent to witness her daughter feel free and accepted. 

Banners & signs adorn the walls at the LGBTQ Center in Durham, NC on September 12, 2026. Credit: Photo by Matt Ramey

The center provides support not only to trans people themselves but also to their families. What is your personal investment in that work?

I am invested in a world in which it is possible for all people to live with liberation, fulfillment, and beauty. Trans young people have to fight so many cultural forces to access that, but our families can be an epicenter of love and affirmation from which broader transformation emanates. The data is there—young trans people having even one supportive adult in their life makes a world of positive difference in how their future unfolds. 

It is also true that in even the supportive families, when a young person comes out, caregivers often need to reimagine what the family’s future might be. This is deep spiritual and existential work that no one should have to do in isolation. I want parents of trans kids to know that they are beautiful, their kids are beautiful, and their families are beautiful. And they are not alone. There is a community here waiting to welcome them with open arms as they transform alongside their trans child. 

How does the theme for this year’s Durham Pride Week—”Always Forward, Never Straight”—reflect the center’s values, history, or work ahead?

On the one hand, the work the center does is complicated: We fight for big change in wickedly complex systems. On the other hand, it is simple: We work so that all people in our communities can experience joy and belonging. 

Lorraine Hansberry, a Black lesbian civil rights activist and playwright, wrote in a letter to a beloved coconspirator that we can impose beauty upon our future. This is something we’re meditating on a lot right now at the center. In times where there is so much danger and uncertainty, manifesting joy and centering belonging are necessary acts of power and resilience. 

Many of the trailblazers who ignited the formal movement for LGBTQ liberation in Durham are still here. They speak of marching with rifles trained on them, under threat from the KKK, fearful of being outed to their families, and of pushing through their own fear to meet the moment in protest and celebration. They did so not out of ego but out of a fundamental conviction that queer and trans people deserve to live full, long, connected lives.

At its core, the center lives by these teachings. The joy and belonging we practice are not naive. They are acts of resistance rooted in legacy, declarations of our humanity that make a beautiful, queer future inevitable. 

Banners & signs adorn the walls of the archive room at the LGBTQ Center in Durham, NC on September 12, 2026. Credit: Photo by Matt Ramey

What should people know about this current era of the LGBTQ Center of Durham?

We are here for and with our community, in all of its forms. We are always a model of possibility, and we are always becoming. In that respect, the center is the embodiment of queerness! While we don’t have answers to all the harms people in our community experience, we want folks to know that everything we do, we do with heart and devotion to our queer and trans kindred.

We are always working to create more opportunities for belonging. Presently, that looks like building more spaces that center parents and caregivers, in acknowledgment of the vital future-building work they are doing; more opportunities for intergenerational connection; more opportunities for mutual aid; and a political home for all in our communities who seek one. 

We truly have the best staff. We know a more just world is possible because we build it in our relationships with one another, our workplace, and our programming every day. We invite every queer and trans person in Durham—and those who love them—into that project with us. 

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