Carey Gibbons was on the front steps of Cleveland City Hall when the Supreme Court ruled that marriage equality was a constitutional right a decade ago.
She was also on those same steps after Tierramarie Lewis, a 36-year-old Black transgender woman, was killed in Cleveland in 2021.
Gibbons, who identifies as a nonbinary lesbian and uses she/they pronouns, is intimately familiar with the joys and struggles of living as a queer person in Cleveland.
"Cleveland is rich with resources and community," Gibbons said. "We have Colors+ counseling, a youth drop-in center, the LGBT Community Center, the Beyond Identities Community Center, Stonewall Sports, Studio West 117th, where you can play pickleball and attend a drag bingo and get a nice trivia night in. We are rich in ways that a Midwest town isn't expected to be. You go over onto West 29th, we have the rainbow crosswalks, you know? And those little moments of visibility really just give folks who identify that like, 'Oh, I belong here.'
"But we also have real challenges through the shift in our political climate," she said.
Now, Gibbons is taking up the mantle as the city's inaugural, full-time LGBTQ+ liaison.
It's a position that was created earlier this year after staff had long identified a need to formalize a paid advocacy job. The person who previously held the job, Kevin Schmotzer, was a volunteer who already worked full-time within the Department of Economic Development. He helped advocate for various policies like the creation of a gender-neutral bathroom in city hall but said the job had developed into "a lot" over the years. He and others helped lead the charge for a paid staffer.
Gibbons is thrilled to be the first.
"I find myself in awe every single day when I go to work and feel the excitement that is being built around my position," Gibbons said. "I think that moving towards real inclusion and allowing people to show up authentically in their work and in their spaces of community is really exciting."
Gibbons, who began in July, is starting by listening to the community. She said people in the marginalized group feel scared under the current state and federal policymakers enacting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation like Ohio's transgender bathroom ban.
"Right now, we are struggling to find where safety is and where it can be okay to be ourselves," Gibbons said. "Even having conversations like this is really an opportunity to remind folks that we have come this far and we have further to go, but we're not going to stop now."
In recent years, states have introduced a record number of bills limiting LGTBQ+ rights, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, prompting the Human Rights Campaign to issue its first national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in 2023. Between 2023 and Feb. 13, 2025, Ohio legislators introduced 15 such bills.
"If you don't feel safe, then there are places here you can turn to, so I want to make sure people know that," Gibbons said. "But the biggest challenge right now is the fact that we can't be seen by our federal government."
Gibbons' job is to be a bridge between the community and local government. She'll connect people with resources, relay concerns and successes to city officials and advocate for inclusive policies. She'll also help coordinate events at City Hall and with Cleveland's annual Pride Festival.
"As a wonderful advocate, I am not a policymaker,' Gibbons said. "I will provide a menu of options, and I will listen deeply to our community, and I am just one person and I know that in order for us to be able to move forward, we need to have a collective coming together and saying this is what we need."
Gibbons has more than 15 years of experience working with the city's LGBTQ+ community, from the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland to the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.
Gibbons said their initial focus is on the city’s LGBTQ+ unhoused population.
Studies show that LGBTQ+ adults are twice as likely than the general population to have experienced homelessness in their lifetimes, and a higher proportion of transgender people report recent homelessness than their cisgender and straight counterparts.
"Our unhoused population is in direct need of services, so we need to start there," Gibbons said. "We need to expand more non-discriminatory policies to put Cleveland in a position to be welcoming for all."
Gibbon's annual salary is $62,000. Their position is under the Community Relations Board, joining several other paid liaisons that represent various city constituencies, like Cleveland’s Asian and Hispanic communities.
"Having an administration behind me and City Council that allows for that, I think is a really big pivotal moment in our city's history," Gibbons said.
