What would you do for family?
Mandi and Royce faced that difficult question last year when they decided to move from Texas to a sanctuary state. Mandi and their two children, V and Bailey, are all members of the LGBTQ+ Community. As new state laws and school policies chipped away at the rights and protections of their children, their family made the difficult decision to move. “A lot of our friends were already leaving.” Mandi shared. “We were already losing community.”
Growing up in a family that moved often, Royce knew how hard it could be for their kids. “I’ve always prided myself that we’ve had our kids grow up with the same friend group basically the whole time,” He admitted. “It was hard on me to say ‘sorry, we have to go,’ and it was hard on them too; they never had to experience that loss before.”
Mandi stumbled across Frederick while looking for LGBTQ+ friendly cities and states. As she began to research, a name kept coming up in her searches: The Frederick Center. After falling in love with Frederick’s small-town feel and the LGBTQ+ programs our center hosts, the family decided to move here.
Soon enough, the whole family was involved in every aspect of our community Center: V and Bailey began attending support groups and youth Dungeons and Dragons nights; Mandi attends adult programs; and Royce comes to community events with the family whenever he can.
When asked if there was a moment when they knew they had picked the right place to move to, Mandi laughed. “It’s such a little thing,” she said. “But when I was walking up to pick up the kids from group—and this was still before I really knew anyone—the Program Director, Glorie, saw me, recognized me, and greeted me with a big hello. As we were talking, I saw all these amazing queer families coming and going from the Center, and it felt like home.”
