Pride Frisco celebrates their city’s first-ever Pride Month Proclamation in June. (Photo courtesy of Pride Frisco)

Jon and Justin Culpepper found a serious lack of resources for LGBTQ people when they moved to Frisco.
So they decided to do something about it

TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com

Jon and Justin Culpepper had been together some eight years and legally married for about three years by 2018 when Jon’s job relocated from Irving to Plano, prompting the couple themselves to relocate also — to Frisco. For a couple who was accustomed to living openly in the Gayborhood, the move north to this notoriously conservative suburban enclave was something of a culture shock at first.

“When we first moved to Frisco, our strategy was to kind of blend in, to not really make a lot of noise,” Justin said.

“We didn’t really know the lay of the land up here, and we didn’t want to turn anybody against us, so we just kind of kept quiet.”

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PRIDE FRISCO BLOCK PARTY
Pride Frisco Block Party happens Saturday, Oct. 8, noon-4 p.m., at Grace Avenue United Methodist Church, 3521 Main St. in Frisco.

More than 50 vendors are participating, including FC Dallas, Dallas Stars, Dallas Wings, Microsoft, TIAA, Dallas Hope Charities, Resource Center Dallas, Equality Texas, PFLAG Dallas, UT Dallas, SMU, The Dinosaur Company, YMCA, Gearbox Entertainment, Rainbow Roundup, and more.

There will be player appearances, games, activities and door prizes including a basketball signed by the Dallas Wings WNBA Team, a Nintendo Switch, a signed Dallas Stars Pride jersey and more.

Special guest speakers include Sandy Cross, chief people officer for PGA of America; Joseph Hernandez, director of diversity, Equity and inclusion for TIAA; LaDondra Wilson, executive director of the Dallas Wings Foundation; and Leo Cusimano, president and publisher of Dallas Voice.

…..

The two had lived in Uptown since they had first gotten together in 2010, Jon said. So, Justin said, “moving to Frisco was a dramatic change. Here, if somebody finds out you’re gay, it’s like they just saw an elf or something!”

Jon said, “We’ve always shown up. We’ve always been authentic in how we lived our lives and never hidden. I mean, we have the same last name! But we’ve been asked, ‘Are y’all brothers?’ We just roll our eyes and say, ‘Nooooo.’ I mean, I’m Asian and he’s white!”

Then in 2020, the COVID pandemic hit and “we really started keeping to ourselves,” Justin said. “But then, after the vaccines were released and people started feeling more comfortable in trying to get back to normal routines, we decided to get out and about and start getting to know the different happenings around town.”

That’s when they begin to realize how many queer people and allies there really were in and around Frisco, and how few resources were available locally for them.

“We met a series of people with queer kids or queer siblings or who knew other parents with queer kids and so on, and we just knew there was a real need for something for them here in this community,” Justin said.

And, he added, he and his husband felt like they were just the ones to help make that happen. Justin grew up in the Houston suburb of Tomball and spent some time living in Houston’s Montrose gayborhood before moving to DFW where he and Jon both lived in and around the Gayborhood for several years. That experience, he said, means “We can speak to people in a certain way; we know the approach to take with people who are a little more sensitive about [LGBTQ] issues. But we also have that depth of understanding that comes with having lived in an area where there are all these resources available, where we had the chance to know some of the major players” in the LGBTQ community and organizations.

“We were the perfect vehicle to serve as a bridge to get people more familiar and more comfortable with talking about LGBTQ issues,” Justin said.

Jon added, “We understand the authentic, lived experiences of facing discrimination. Many times it isn’t [blatant], but there are these underlying challenges that come with showing up as who you are, and we understand that. We are not the experts on everything LGBTQ, of course. But we can connect with and know of core resources locally and nationally to help people find what they need.”

Jon, Justin said, “has had a musical career, as well,” and after working with a nonprofit choir was already familiar with the process of creating a nonprofit organization. “We had already done some of the nonprofit paperwork for his choir, so it was just a natural pivot to do the same thing for a Pride organization,” he said. “Both of us have careers — I am a nurse practitioner, and Jon has decades of experience in corporate America — so we have that experience in how to grow networks, get in touch with the right people.

“It’s just sort of a natural fit in terms of what we do and our experiences in our personal and professional lives,” Justin added.

The two men knew they had to “make sure to do this right,” Justin continued. “That meant that we had to get the community and community leaders involved from the start. That meant we had to involve ourselves in the fabric of the community so people could get to know us and understand we want to do something that is for Frisco and by Frisco, but also for the greater community.”

So they started by going out and meeting people and being involved in the Frisco community. They learned, they said, that the while the Frisco “power players may not be fully supportive or openly supportive, they do at least understand and respect what we are trying to do.”

One myth they had to battle early on, the men said, was the idea that there weren’t any LGBTQ people in Frisco, or at least, not many. The key was explaining that just because you couldn’t see LGBTQ people, that didn’t mean they weren’t there.

“Frisco is one of the fastest-growing cities in the area. Between 2000 and 2022, some 200,000 people have moved here,” Justin said. “Some of those people are LGBTQ.”

And then, there are the youth. “Considering that the school district here has more than 66,000 students, about a third of the population here is under 18,” Jon said. “And studies have shown that about 20 percent of Gen Z — one in five — identify as a member of the LGBTQ community. This time in their lives, they are at some very pivotal moments when they need the support of their community, when their parents are looking for resources. And there are none here

locally for them.
“There are, though, some crazy churches here in Frisco that want to tell them there is something wrong with them,” he continued. “There is even one that offers conversion therapy, which is very dangerous, very harmful to young

people.”
There is also the fact that Frisco’s government and civic leaders are fighting hard to bring new business and industry to the area. And the most successful businesses and industries are those that are dedicated to the concept of DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion. So if Frisco wants to attract those businesses, the city also has to show its commitment

to the DEI ideal.
“We decided that we were not going to wait for the mayor or the city council to wake up and decide to get on this DEI

train,” Justin said. “We are going to get the train moving, and they can either get on or get left behind.”
The Culpeppers said that once they decided they had to do something to help fill these gaps, they decided they would be as “organic and methodical” about that as they were about acclimating to their new home in the first place. They started by hosting a holiday party at their home last December, announcing then that they would be hold Frisco’s first

Pride event on the second Saturday of October this year.

They have held a number of “pop-up” events throughout the year to lead up to Saturday’s main event, a family-friendly block party featuring live music, food, vendors, games, door prizes, local sports teams and more — all happening from noon to 4 p.m. at Grace Avenue United Methodist Church, 3521 Main St. in Frisco.
Holding the Pride party not only at a church but at a church on Main Street will help show that “this is going to be a

phenomenal, uplifting and affirming event. Having it at the church turns all their arguments about perversions on their heads,” Jon said. “It’s not a religious event, but having it at the church takes away a lot of those weapons they use against us.

“The best time to do this was a long time ago. But the second-best time is now, and so we’re doing it,” Jon said. Justin added, “We have always set high goals for ourselves. What we want to do now is turn a gap in resources into an opportunity for the LGBTQ community and for the community at large to come together.

“This is just the start.”