When Journee LaFond arrived in New Hampshire in 2018, their first thought was that the state had the potential for a strong community. But two questions lingered.

“Where are the Black people and where are the queer people?” said LaFond. “Where’s everybody?”

These questions now drive LaFond’s work in New Hampshire. Day to day, LaFond works as a therapist for a private practice that specializes in serving marginalized communities. After hours, LaFond plans and hosts events for LGBTQ and Black community members in the Concord area, namely the capital city’s pride celebrations in June.

In New Hampshire, LaFond saw two options – lament about the fact that historically the Granite State has been a homogenous place, or find and foster a community for queer people and people of color. They chose the latter.

“I knew that I could spend my energy trying to get Concord a little bit further along those lines and that’s really what we’re trying to do now,” said LaFond, who uses they/them pronouns. “What can I do with my own experience and my own resources to create that sense of community and life.”

Before the pandemic, LaFond hosted smaller events – from spelling bees to brunches – beginning the process of growing the community.

“The idea was to get people together and provide fun and levity but also get people to recognize that there is in fact a robust queer community in New Hampshire,” said LaFond.

With these events, LaFond hoped that the queer community in the area would also find resources among each other – whether it’s a new doctor, dentist or community partner.

In June of 2023, though, events to celebrate Pride Month in Concord were falling through the cracks. Pride Concord, the organization that previously coordinated events, disbanded when COVID hit. So LaFond stepped up and became the chief officer of Capital City Pride.

Working with Bank of New Hampshire, the Capitol Center for the Arts and Queerlective, LaFond organized a weekend of events that included a youth celebration at Kimball Jenkins. The weekend also entailed a ball at Bank of New Hampshire Stage – the first introduction to the ballroom scene in the state, a tradition rooted in Black and queer culture.

“It was really important to me, as someone who is both Black and queer, to bring that kind of representation and introduce people to the importance of ballrooms,” said LaFond. “It does inform so much of queer culture and I think in New Hampshire people can really be divorced from it.”

Now LaFond organizes a monthly event, the Free Range Revue, at the Bank of New Hampshire stage that features drag shows and ballrooms.

“I really want to build this into something that people are aware of and can rely on as a place of like, ‘I am going to go to the ball and I’m going to be able to connect to all of these different resources, even if it’s just finding friends, even though it’s just finding chosen family,’” said LaFond.

In a sense, New Hampshire has served as a blank slate, allowing LaFond to expand the community and support in the last six years. But it hasn’t come without challenges.

Not only is LaFond a nonbinary person, but also the parent of a 17-year-old son, who is transgender. Watching anti-transgender legislation unfold in the State House keeps LaFond restless.

“It’s exhausting and scary and heartbreaking to have to fight and argue and to exhaust myself to make sure that he can get the care that he needs in order to feel like himself and feel like he wants to continue being himself every day,” said LaFond said of her child, who transitioned he was 14-years-old.

Since his transition, LaFond’s child has transformed into a confident, happier version of himself.

“Everything from his posture to his social habits and putting himself out there and making friends, I did not see it before he transitioned,” said LaFond. “To know that there are people who think that regardless of all of those positive things, that there’s something wrong with a child transitioning and embracing who they are, it’s just beyond me.”

Regardless of other challenges – like layoffs at Kimball Jenkins, which has been a consistent community support – LaFond is committed to finding people and partners to grow the ongoing work.

“We don’t have to wait for other people to foster community,” said LaFond. “That is how change is fostered and how it’s grown.”