Toledo, Ohio, is home to one of the largest LGBTQ+ events in Northwest Ohio: Toledo Pride. Though it is a mostly LGBTQ+ friendly city, Toledo native Taren Lutchey saw it still lacked a safe space for the Black LGBTQ+ community to be their authentic selves. A push from her best friend led her to create The Collective, formerly the Toledo Black Queer Collective, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to fostering unity and empowerment within the black LGBTQ+ community.”
The Collective’s safe and inclusive spaces provide outlets for fun and levity in a time of uncertainty. Lutchey, The Collective’s founder and president, created the organization after briefly moving from Toledo to Atlanta, initially hoping to bring the energy of her temporary home to her people rather than stay away.
“I was like, ‘I gotta bring Atlanta here,’” recalled Lutchey, also a board member of The Buckeye Flame. “It’s a different thing when it’s celebrating our culture, and it is showing our culture and our things.”
And although Lutchey knew The Collective was something Toledo needed, she said receiving support to launch it came from unexpected sources.
“A lot of people were afraid,” she explained. “A lot of people are very comfortable, especially the ones who have assimilated into the white queer culture. I feel like some of them were afraid that they would be looked at. They felt like it would threaten their proximity to whiteness, which it hasn’t done for me. Most of the people that have supported me are, you know, in the queer white spaces; they haven’t gotten any pushback, oddly enough.”
Lutchey added that most other LGBTQ+-centered organizations in Toledo recognized the necessity and have done what they can to support it. Many Black LGBTQ+ residents told her that, while Toledo is LGBTQ+ friendly, there weren’t enough places for them to go to feel seen and accepted.
“Because I’ve been out in this community since I was 16, and I’ve been very accepted – because I’m one of those weirdos where I don’t really talk at first, so I seem really quiet and reserved, so I’ve always been like accepted like that – I was never looked at as not one of the good ones,” Lutchey recalled. “But then you have people who are more urban, who don’t fall into the ‘oh, you’re one of the good [ones],’ they’re a little too hood,’ they’re getting watched, or they’re getting treated.”
“I got that when I would talk to other queer black people who aren’t in the scene,” she continued. “They would say, ‘I don’t feel comfortable in spaces. I’m obviously not wanted in those spaces.’”
Still, the state of the world has affected The Collective’s work and visibility. In 2025, Lutchey chose to change The Collective’s name and its logo for protection, though its new logo is still tied to LGBTQ+ history. Lutchey replaced the rainbow on the original logo with an upside-down pink triangle, a symbol that was used to identify gay men in Nazi Germany concentration camps during the Holocaust.
“I was like, ‘OK, you got to dial it back,’ because again, the people that you’re serving, a lot of them aren’t as comfortable wearing a bright rainbow,” she explained.
Though its appearance has changed, The Collective continues to keep its members informed and entertained. Lutchey began building community early on with The Collective’s annual “Family” Reunion, Neo-Flow yoga, blood drives, and events that include free STI and HIV testing.
As The Collective plans more Pride activities ahead of Toledo Pride 2026 in August and their second annual “Family” Reunion — a Black Pride event — in September, Lutchey hopes to see and connect with more of the people she created the organization for and believes the city hasn’t fully seen what the Black LGBTQ+ community can do.
“I just love my people,” she said. “I’ve seen the community here, even though it’s, like, little pockets at different events. I’ve seen us, and we are a beautiful group of people. And once we can just actually like get down and get together, we can make a lot of things happen. A lot of positive changes. It’s just getting us together.” 🔥
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