Tonda Anne Taylor oral history interview 4, 2015 October 5

Description

In this fourth of four interviews, Tonda Taylor, long-time activist for LGBTQ+ rights and founder of Time Out Youth (TOY) in Charlotte, North Carolina, recalls the beginning stages of TOY. Ms. Taylor discusses her previous psychiatric work with Charter Pines Psychiatric Hospital and she reflects on the significant number of adolescents admitted to the hospital experiencing turmoil brought on by their sexual orientation. Throughout Ms. Taylor's psychiatric work during the late 1980s, she became aware of a void in social support for Charlotte's LGBT youth once they left psychiatric care. She discusses her own retreat back into the closet, as well as the retreat of some of her LGBT co-workers due to workplace homophobia and lack of institutional support. Alongside her professional experience, Ms. Taylor reflects on the social experiences that led her to found TOY, including pivotal interactions with LGBT teenagers, as well as inspirational experiences with local Charlotte LGBT organizations, Parents and Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG), and One-Voice Chorus. With the financial inheritance from her brother Sam's early death of HIV/AIDS, Ms. Taylor founded TOY in 1991. Ms. Taylor attributes the support of her mother and local liberal congregations, such as Myers Park Baptist Church and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte, with great importance during the early stages of TOY. To solidify the longevity of TOY, Ms. Taylor organized TOY's first conference on supporting LGBT teenagers and she discusses at length the various processes of organizing, including finding a panel of LGBT teens, as well as inviting the keynote speaker Dr. Virginia Uribe, the founder of the Los Angeles LGBT support organization Project Ten. Ms. Taylor also discusses the daily functions of TOY, including handling phone calls from frightened LGBT youth around North Carolina, finding reliable facilitators, and organizing a board of directors. Ms. Taylor reflects on her surprise by the slow moving support for TOY from wider communities of minorities, specifically Jewish people and African Americans, as well as financially stable gay men, and she attributes a great deal of initial support for TOY coming from individuals. Ms. Taylor reflects on the enormity of fund-raising efforts, as well as the challenges of moving public education for youth in the direction of supporting LGBTQ+ youth.

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Charlotte LGBTQ+ oral histories

Details

Title: Tonda Anne Taylor oral history interview 4, 2015 October 5
Interviewee: Taylor, Tonda, 1940-
Interviewer: Wright, Christina
Place of Publication: Charlotte, North Carolina
Publisher: J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections & University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Date of Interview: 2015-10-05
Physical Description: 1 audio file (2:18:31) : digital, MP3 + 1 transcript (62 pages : PDF)
Object Type: sound recording-nonmusical
Genre: spoken word
Language: eng
Interviewee Biography: Tonda Taylor was a 74-year-old woman at the time of interview, which took place in her home in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was born and raised in Charlotte in 1941. She was educated at Myers Park High School and Allegheny College. Ms. Taylor worked as a medical health professional early in her life and has been a long- time activist for LGBTQ+ rights. She is the founder of Time Out Youth, a nonprofit organization that provides resources, support and advocacy to LGBTQ+ youth in the greater Charlotte, North Carolina area.
Abstract: In this fourth of four interviews, Tonda Taylor, long-time activist for LGBTQ+ rights and founder of Time Out Youth (TOY) in Charlotte, North Carolina, recalls the beginning stages of TOY. Ms. Taylor discusses her previous psychiatric work with Charter Pines Psychiatric Hospital and she reflects on the significant number of adolescents admitted to the hospital experiencing turmoil brought on by their sexual orientation. Throughout Ms. Taylor's psychiatric work during the late 1980s, she became aware of a void in social support for Charlotte's LGBT youth once they left psychiatric care. She discusses her own retreat back into the closet, as well as the retreat of some of her LGBT co-workers due to workplace homophobia and lack of institutional support. Alongside her professional experience, Ms. Taylor reflects on the social experiences that led her to found TOY, including pivotal interactions with LGBT teenagers, as well as inspirational experiences with local Charlotte LGBT organizations, Parents and Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG), and One-Voice Chorus. With the financial inheritance from her brother Sam's early death of HIV/AIDS, Ms. Taylor founded TOY in 1991. Ms. Taylor attributes the support of her mother and local liberal congregations, such as Myers Park Baptist Church and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte, with great importance during the early stages of TOY. To solidify the longevity of TOY, Ms. Taylor organized TOY's first conference on supporting LGBT teenagers and she discusses at length the various processes of organizing, including finding a panel of LGBT teens, as well as inviting the keynote speaker Dr. Virginia Uribe, the founder of the Los Angeles LGBT support organization Project Ten. Ms. Taylor also discusses the daily functions of TOY, including handling phone calls from frightened LGBT youth around North Carolina, finding reliable facilitators, and organizing a board of directors. Ms. Taylor reflects on her surprise by the slow moving support for TOY from wider communities of minorities, specifically Jewish people and African Americans, as well as financially stable gay men, and she attributes a great deal of initial support for TOY coming from individuals. Ms. Taylor reflects on the enormity of fund-raising efforts, as well as the challenges of moving public education for youth in the direction of supporting LGBTQ+ youth.
Digital Object Notes: MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV preservation master. Interview originally recorded on a Marantz PMD670 digital recorder with external dynamic mic.
Interviewee Occupations: Nonprofit organizations--Employees
Executives
Subjects--Names: Taylor, Tonda, 1940-
Subjects--Organizations: Time Out Youth (Charlotte, N.C.)
Myers Park Baptist Church (Charlotte, N.C.)
Unitarian Church of Charlotte (Charlotte, N.C.)
Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays
Subjects--Topics: Coming out (Sexual orientation)
Mental health care for LGBTQ+ people
Gay youth
Gay youth--Services for
Homophobia
Nonprofit organizations
Subjects--Geographic: North Carolina--Charlotte
Subjects--Genre: Interviews
Oral histories
Coverage--Dates: 1980-2020
Digital Collection Title: Charlotte LGBTQ+ oral histories
Rights: This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
This material is protected by copyright. Copyright is held by Tonda Anne Taylor.
Internet Media Type: audio/mpeg
Related Interviews: Tonda Taylor oral history interview 1, March 10, 2015; Tonda Taylor oral history interview 2, July 9, 2015, Tonda Taylor oral history interview 3, September 9, 2015 Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Related Materials: Time Out Youth Records, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Identifier: QH-TA0008

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