Hate Has No Home Here
This original piece by our Executive Director, Amy Upham, was published as an Op-Ed in the April 20th, 2025 edition of The Citizen Times:
Most LGBTQIA+ people I know were bullied at some point in their coming of age, often beginning in middle school. For me, I remember quite vividly the taunts, and even gum in my hair, because I played with the boys and dressed in gender neutral clothing. Bullying experiences usually involve one or two bullies surrounded by a group of onlookers who point and laugh along with them or stand in shock not knowing what to do. On lucky days, someone intervenes, and the bully goes down.
Over the past three months, our country’s administration has become lead bully against LGBTQIA+ people. I’ve seen the response play out in perfect playground fashion, with many of our allies standing in shock, not knowing what to do or what is coming next. Last week, I met with one of Blue Ridge Pride’s most loyal sponsors, Mission Health, and learned that HCA has instructed all of their hospitals to put a “pause” on funding anything related to DEI: a pause, during a profoundly dangerous time, on the people who receive gender affirming surgery at Mission Hospital, who are a part of their LGBTQIA+ employee resource group, and who represent the largest contingent in our Welcoming Procession.
Friends and neighbors, we cannot let the bully win. HCA is taking a step that several other corporations have. Recently, Anheuser Busch withdrew Pride support across the country, making headlines for profoundly hurting big city Prides. Blue Ridge Pride, empowered last year with a new sponsorship policy that fended off rainbow washing, divested from several corporations, including Anheuser Busch. We reasoned that Mission, with a balanced (at the time) corporate giving profile, meant what they said about their commitment to DEI. But when I looked at the corporation’s total 2024 contributions, while individuals who work at HCA gave more to pro-LGBTQ+ candidates than not, HCA itself gave $125,000 to GOPAC, whose roster of emerging leaders includes North Carolina Senator Benton Sawrey who publicly endorsed the egregious anti-LGBTQ+ “Parents Bill of Rights.”
And now we start to see the playground more clearly. Not only complicit in their silence and divestment from Pride, they are hedging their bets on the “strongman.” Whatever the reasoning, we know without a doubt that Mission, that health care system that predates HCA and sits in the hearts of the nurses and doctors there who support, and often are, LGBTQIA+, is not behind this decision. Unfortunately, the entity that provides their paychecks, is.
Last November, our organization passed a budget which anticipated a 30% loss of sponsor funds due to damages from Tropical Storm Helene. But instead that loss is largely coming from DEI rollback. The local small business community is showing up in force even as their own struggles are still very real: the Matt and Molly Team, Lantern Health, The Asheville Downtown Association, Arts AVL and Central Bark have all doubled-down on their support. HiWire Brewing, whose warehouse was destroyed in the storm, is giving us free venue space for our first Trans Pride. Mosaic Realty matched last year’s sponsorship by employees dipping into their own pockets. And some national corporations are not backing down; Eaton, Bank of America and Sanstone Health came through again, and Fred Anderson Subaru increased their support.
Allyship is not complicated. At its core, it is about standing with the kid on the playground getting bullied. It is being the person that intervenes so that others gain the courage to not be silent. And allyship in large enough doses can take down a bully.
We are at a fragile and terrifying precipice as a country. Every queer person I know with any means is researching how to move abroad. Our allies are dropping one by one. But with every (fake) ally I see stepping back, another emerges. Not surprisingly, it is often either another queer person, or someone who understands what it is to be marginalized: parents of queer kids, immigrants, people in recovery. Behind the scenes and in public, we are taking one another’s hands. I urge those of conscience and means in our community to not be silent, and to donate what you can this year to local LGBTQIA+ nonprofits. We have been dealt serious blows by the 1-2 punch of Helene and the new administration’s DEI attacks. For Blue Ridge Pride, our celebrations will go on because Asheville is deciding hate has no home here. Help us make that statement, and please write to HCA to express your disappointment in their decision.