Naples LGBTQ population finds growing support in community, faith groups

The Naples LGBTQ population has found increasing levels of support from both the community at large and faith groups.

Cori Craciun, founder and president of Naples Pride, said as a lesbian it’s not her style but would feel secure walking down Fifth Avenue holding the hand of a significant other.

As a Naples resident for several decades, she said she feels Naples has always been very open, though the LGBTQ community was not as visible as it is today. Since Naples Pride was started in 2017, however, Craciun has noted a trend toward more visibility.

"When Naples Pride started, Craciun said, it was like “We’re here. People have to know, and they have to listen to us.”

And, for folks looking for it, there is an accepting network of religious organizations, Craciun said.

Related:Naples Pride plans to establish community center

And:Finding compassion in the face of hate for Pride Month

That includes Temple Shalom in Naples. Senior Rabbi Adam Miller’s reform congregation was founded in 1962, and he said one of the primary values of the congregation is building relationships and forming connections with everybody who visits.

“We begin with the teaching from Genesis that all human beings are created in a divine image,” Miller said. “We don’t discriminate based on identity.”

Miller also said that, for too long, religion was weaponized against LGBTQ people and the rhetoric generally hinged on people of faith rejecting those who identified differently.

Now, however, Miller said many houses of faith have open doors to different identities, which can be helpful and supportive for LGBTQ people.

“It gives people a sense of belonging,” Miller said. “(LGBTQ people) should know that there are places where they’re welcome.”

At Naples United Church of Christ, senior minister Rev. Dawson Taylor is an openly gay man.

“We’re a place that not only accepts persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities, but we celebrate them,” he said. “When we see the diversity of our faith and the diversity of our history, we know LGBTQ people have been part of that since the very beginning.”

Taylor, who moved to Naples from Dallas, discovered the city to be very accepting. 

“I’m very proud of the fact that our Pride festival has become such a significant event in this community,” he said. “I think there are signs of how this community is and continues to be an accepting place.”

He also stressed the importance of religious organizations accepting people who are LGBTQ.

“Many in the LGBTQ community have felt ostracized and pushed out of the church,” Dawson said. “I think to offer a place where people can know the full reality of the relationships with God and a relationship with the community and accepting people is really important, especially in a time where LGBTQ people may feel under attack or not fully accepted in all places or all churches.”

Naples United Church of Christ is also where PFLAG, a parent-based support group for families with LGBTQ members, is hosted.

PFLAG Naples president David Goldstein said the group has meetings once a month and most frequently deals with parents whose child has recently come out to them or a child who has been rejected. For people LGBTQ community, Goldstein said, coming out isn’t a one-and-done deal.

“You come out to every person you meet,” he said.

In his group, Goldstein has learned that most parents whose child has come out faces a certain level of anxiety of how their child will be received and what they’ll go through, but the environment for coming out has improved over time.

While Craciun said she would feel comfortable with a public display of affection on Fifth Avenue, Goldstein differed, saying the community’s level of acceptance is “Good, but not great, but getting better.”

The general basis of rejection for LGBTQ people is faith, Goldstein said, which makes accepting religious organizations that much more important.

The coordinator of the LGBTQ support group for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Naples, who goes by Annie Roger, said she’s found the congregation to be one of the only safe spaces in Naples.

“I think (Naples is) a very conservative city. I think that a lot of people are afraid,” she said.

As a genderfluid trans male, Roger said, the congregation is “the only place I’ve found where I can be myself.”

The UUC is a welcoming congregation, which Roger said means anybody can come and will be embraced and celebrated.

Everybody in the LGBTQ community has a unique experience, Goldstein said, and Craciun said she still finds hope in the progress the LGBTQ community has made in Naples so far.

“You’ve got to keep going,” Craciun said. “Even if you help one person, it still makes a huge difference.”

Andrew Atkins is a Features Reporter with the Naples Daily News. Contact him via email at andrew.atkins@naplesnews.com or on Twitter at @andrewjatkins.