The founding organization of the The Collin Russell Home in Heber City celebrated the first birthday of the LGBTQ+ safe haven and resource hub along with Pride Month, and people served by the home reflected on life in a conservative community.

Booths with food, games and other activities surrounded the home where members of the community and supporters hung out Friday at the only public Pride Month event in Wasatch County.

“The first year that we’ve been open, we’ve seen a lot of new faces and people who have really enjoyed our services that come back week after week to participate in our programs,” Home Director Elise Villaroman said. “It’s really cool to see the community that is built at Encircle between the youth and between the young adults and them and the volunteers as well.”

She said the purpose of the organization is to make sure LGBTQ+ youth and young adults have the support and resources “that they need and that they deserve.” To achieve this, the home hosts a variety of weekly events from art and music nights to adult friendship circles and family dinners for the entire community.

The events average 10 participants each night, excluding volunteers, and the home has seen significant growth in its first year, she said.

“We want to see more people at the home and more people to enjoy and benefit from the service,” Villaroman said.

The parents

The beneficiaries of The Collin Russell Home aren’t limited to members of the LGBTQ+ community themselves, but also those who love and want to support them.

Friday night, former Heber City Mayor Kelleen Potter sat on a bench next to the home and talked and laughed with friends. She used to work at Encircle, and she knows first hand how hard it can be for a gay teenager to find a sense of welcoming and community in Heber Valley and how difficult the path can also be for some parents when their kid comes out.

“About 13 years ago, my oldest son came out as gay, and it was a really hard time for him and a hard time to be out in this community,” she said.

This prompted her to take steps to make people from the historically ostracized LGBTQ+ community feel more welcome in Heber City. Her experience when her 14-year-old son came out was “heart-wrenching.” She felt isolated, and she wasn’t sure where to turn.

“We almost lost him. I felt alone. I didn’t know any other kids who were gay, I didn’t know any moms who were gay. There weren’t any resources,” Potter said. “About three years after he came out, I learned about Mama Dragons, and that’s when I started having support and better understanding. I didn’t understand why he acted the way he did. I didn’t know what was happening. … But after that time and there started being more resources and I found connection and community, I recognized how important it is for these kids to feel love and acceptance and to make sure they’re safe.”

After a hard freshman year at Wasatch High School, her son ended up leaving Heber City to seek a better fit with a different community.

While Mama Dragons — a nonprofit organization with a mission to “support, educate and empower mothers of LGBTQ+ children” — proved to be a vital part of her journey, Potter pondered on how things might have been different if a place like The Collin Russell Home would have been around for her and her son 13 years ago.

“I truly believe it would have been totally different. I think it would have been a game changer to have a place like this to come and have people that just swoop these kids up and tell them they love them and they’re welcome,” Potter said. “I really think it would have been a game changer.”

Potter — whose son is now 27 and whose 23-year-old daughter came out as transgender — encouraged Heber Valley to open their hearts and minds.

“I would tell them to get curious and instead of thinking they know what it means and that people are making mistakes and that they’re sinning, to take time to listen and to talk to LGBT people, to talk to the gay kid, even if they just go on the internet and listen to stories,” Potter said. “I had only heard things through my religion and through the culture, and I was terrified for my child. I knew he didn’t choose it, but I didn’t understand the importance of getting rid of the shame and him knowing that he was accepted and loved exactly as he was.”

The kids

Sitting at a volunteer bench at the edge of the event, greeting passersby, were Cherry Jones and Jess Judd.

Judd — who uses they/them pronouns — graduated from high school in 2020. They said the experience was eased by finding a solid group of LGBTQ+ friends. It would have been even better, they said, if they’d had the community kids today can find at The Collin Russell Home.

“It felt very isolating,” Judd said. “We knew that nobody would be accepting of us.”

Judd said it felt like an us-versus-them situation. They remember the looks they got.

Now that they have a transgender brother attending high school, Judd said the harassment at school has only gotten worse.

“He and his friends get bulled pretty rough,” Judd said. “He’ll get yelled slurs at him, people will bark at them. School is a dangerous place for him, but me and my brother, we come here almost every day.”

The Collin Russell Home, Judd said, has made a big difference personally as well as for their family.

“We’ve been almost kicked out of every other community that we’ve had. My brother was asked not to come to church anymore, and that’s something we’ve had our whole life,” Judd said. “Having somewhere as a beacon of hope, it saves lives, and it’s saved our family from being completely isolated.”

Even as their brother faces harsher bullying than what Judd had to go through, they said it’s been helpful to have the Encircle resource where they know he has friends.

“Now there’s a space that they can go where they know they’ll have food to eat, they’ll have fun activities to do, they can express themselves openly without judgment,” Judd said. “It means a lot. And I watch a lot of kids come through here, and I know how much it means to all of them to have this center.”

When Jones was 19, he left the Heber Valley. He said he didn’t feel safe. He returned at 20.

“Coming back here, I was really nervous, but I didn’t know that there was going to be an Encircle Heber here,” Jones said. 

The home made a big impact on his experience with the town, making it a friendlier place by connecting him with allies and other members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“When I started to go and started to volunteer, I started to feel safer and feel OK living here as a queer individual. So I do come here often to feel welcome and validated because I don’t really get that at home as much.” 

Jones said the home gives him something to look forward to, a place with kind people and friends where he is welcome. 

“Encircle’s definitely saved my life in a way,” he said. “I have a place I belong.”