How many Ohio counties can you name?
Many LGBTQ+ Ohioans can instantly rattle off Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Summit and maybe a handful more. But what about the rest of the 88?
Over on the southwestern edge of the state sits Preble County. This rural locale ranks 61st in population out of Ohio’s 88 counties, with Eaton as the largest city, coming in at around 8,300 residents.
And, yes, it’s a conservative county. Over 80% voted for Trump in the 2020 election and close to 68% voted this past August for the Republican-backed amendment that would have made the constitution near-impossible for Ohioans to update.
But, conservative though it may be, that certainly doesn’t mean there aren’t LGBTQ+ Ohioans living in Preble County. There are. And they have an organization called Preble County Pride which has as its mission to bring LGBTQ+ visibility, awareness and acceptance to rural Preble County and the surrounding areas.
The Buckeye Flame chatted with Clayton Jaros, Jordan Gwynne and Emily Smith, board members for Preble County Pride, about doing this work in that corner of Ohio. Click play directly below to listen to our interview or read our edited conversation underneath.
For folks in Ohio who have never visited Preble County or who possibly don’t even know where it is, where do we start? How do you describe Preble County?
Clayton Jaros: Preble County is in southwestern Ohio, in between Richmond, Indiana and Dayton. I work in Montgomery County and it’s surprising to me how many people just have not heard of Preble County. If you think Preble County, people think Pork Festival. That’s one of the highlights of our county here.
And then of course we’ve got our covered bridges and our wonderful Fort St. Clair in Eaton. There’s a lot of history here in Preble County that people just don’t realize is in their own backyard. A large part of what our organization is about is not only supporting and giving awareness for our [LGBTQ+] community but also about celebrating Preble County community and what we’ve got here.
Emily, you have friends in Preble County, though not residing there yourself. What have you gotten to know about the county?
Emily Smith: Well, like Clayton said, there is a lot of history.
It is very conservative and it is very religious. I grew up in the church. I was a pastor’s granddaughter. So, I grew up very religious, growing up and growing out of the church. I realized there was a lot of hate and a lot of very opposite of what Jesus teaches.
And so, I met my friends in Preble County. A lot of them are gay and I realized that the church is not something I want to be associated with. I want to help other people in Preble who are very underserved and underrepresented.
When I think about being out LGBTQ+ in Preble County, that immediately makes me nervous. Is there foundation for me feeling that way?
Clayton: To be honest with you and in my experience, not so much.
There have been issues here, just like there have been issues everywhere else. But I think a large part of what is important to do here in this county is to humanize ourselves a little bit. Everyone is always seeing what they see on the news. They’re seeing what they see online.
What we’re trying to do is invite people to come here. Eat dinner with us. Just understand that we’re human like everyone else. Personally, I’ve never felt unsafe here. I will happily hold a partner’s hand going to the store here. Yes, you might get some stares. Yes, you might get some looks. But it’s important to be visible.
Talk to me about Preble County Pride. When did the organization get started and why?
Clayton: So I created and actually bought the website and the domain for the organization like five or six years ago. Growing up here, it’s a vacuum. It’s very easy to tell yourself that you’re alone. I did that my whole life. Little did I know there was support here. You just have to look for it. I founded this organization just to bring visibility and awareness, and, eventually, it’ll bring some acceptance to our communities out here.
Right now it’s about putting ourselves into the communities, setting up tables, talking to the people. We went to the July 4th celebration in West Alexandria and it was one of our slower events. We didn’t have as many people visit our table, but what we did see was a lot of LGBTQ+ youth with their families. I call it rubbernecking. They would just kind of stop or they would keep walking slowly and look and you could see that connection happening in their mind. Like, “Oh my God, there’s someone here that supports us.”
You can see that happening on their face. And even if we talk to two people the whole day, if we can just put some visibility out there, I think that’ll go a long way. That’s a large part of what we’re trying to do: embed ourselves in the communities, build working relationships and just try to build a little bit of respect.
Jordan, talk to us about what the response has been like from your perspective.
Jordan Gwynne: I think the response has been great. We’ve had our challenges, but we didn’t let the challenges get to us. We’ve had multiple great events that we’ve been to over the past year alone, going to different places where you would be surprised to see a Pride table.
Of course, you know, we’ve had the looks, but the overall outreach of how many people we have been able to get to just in the past year is amazing.
We recently were at an event and a young lady came up to us and she was telling us about her story about how she was so afraid to come out. She was so afraid to say anything because she just didn’t know what the reaction was going to be. We were able to discuss it with her and tell her, “You do have support.” And it was great to see just the change on her face. Not too long after that, she brought a whole bunch of her friends back to the table with her.
We had another encounter where a girl who didn’t know that Preble County even had a Pride. Not even five minutes later, she came back with her girlfriend. She didn’t feel like she could express herself being in Preble County, but she felt super comfortable coming up to the table.
What about for you, Emily? Tell me one of those stories where you thought, “Oh yeah, we are making a difference here.”
Emily Smith: One thing that I didn’t expect was the response, especially from young LGBTQ+ people and the outpouring that they give us. They immediately know that [our table] is a safe space and they immediately start venting about how their father doesn’t accept them or they’re scared to come out. Sometimes it can be very difficult to hear, but it’s a wonderful feeling to know that they know that this is a safe place to express those emotions.
We definitely have had negative experiences just being around the religious conservatives. At that July 4th event that we went to, our booth was put next to a very Westboro Baptist Church-type group, saying “You’re going to hell and if you do this.” However, we also had so many young people come up to that booth and at that event we raised the most donation money that we have ever raised at a table, and that includes all of the Prides that we’ve been at. Whether accidental or purposeful, we were put next to a very hateful booth, and the emotional connections we made at that event were so powerful. You really do just realize that you’re making a difference.
Please tell everybody how we can support what you all are doing.
Clayton: There’s a few different ways to do that. Right now we’re currently planning our PrideGiving celebration. That’ll be Saturday, November 11th. The doors open at 1:30pm and it’s at the Eaton Youth Center. We’re going to serve a free, community meal. We’ll have raffle items, prizes. And video games to provide a safe, inclusive space for LGBTQ+, youth and adults.
Emily: There will be community organizations present. Equitas Health is bringing their testing van.They’re going to do HIV and HCV testing.
Clayton: And as far as helping us further goes, if you know anyone that can set up a resource table and provide resources to Preble County, that would be extremely helpful to us.
Sponsorships help us buy stuff for the table and help us for event planning. And then just following us on Facebook and interacting with us online helps us so much and helps get our message out there. 🔥
Ignite Action
- To follow all things Preble County Pride, visit their linktr.ee.
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