Listen to this articleA Tooele County woman is looking to start a social and support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer residents of the Western Utah county, where she says opportunities and resources for this community are difficult to come by.
“We came out here and there was absolutely nothing here, no resources or events or anything for anyone in the gay community,” said Robin Sheehy, who moved to county seat Tooele City with her partner earlier this year. Concerned, Sheehy said she wrote a letter to the city government asking if she had missed something.
“The response I got back was basically that they didn’t have any idea what LGBT stood for or what they should be doing,” she said.
So Sheehy decided to take matters into her own hands by turning to Facebook, the social media site that Utah’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community regularly uses to organize and plan events. Her page, titled “Come Out Tooele” currently has around 50 members from all over the county. Soon, Sheehy hopes that they can all meet up in person. She said she is currently contacting local businesses to see if any would be willing to host the group’s inaugural social.
In the meantime, she said that she would like more people to join the Facebook group, socialize with one another, and give her feedback on the direction in which they would like the group to go.
“There really is a need for resources out here,” she said. “I know there are a lot of younger kids out here and people who don’t have [any way to connect] because it’s such a small town, which is frustrating for a lot of people.”
To join Come Out Tooele, log in to Facebook and search for “Come Out Tooele” or click here.
