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The OUTlook, a weekly newsletter about LGBTQ+ business, labor and workplace equality from Qnotes.
Charlotte Pride broke records this year with its annual parade, where 200+ contingents, 40+ floats, and roughly 10,000 participants made their way down Tryon Street. Hundreds of vendors lined the festival zone including Music City Creative, an LGBTQ+ owned business based in Nashville, Tennessee. This past March, Qnotes’ Chris Rudisill talked to the owners of Music City Creative about their business and how they aim to “set an example for small businesses focused on sustainability and success.”
You can read that story in this week’s OUTlook.
Have a story you want to tell? Email us at audience@qnotescarolinas.com.
Building a better workplace, one t-shirt at a time
Jared Sizemore sits at a desk in Music City Creative’s 3,500-square-foot warehouse space just south of downtown Nashville, Tenn. where he oversees the organizational strategy and day-to-day operations at the fairly young print shop. A rainbow flag hangs on the wall behind him and the popular phrase “y’all means all” has an especially important tie to the company’s success.
In 2020, he left his job as marketing manager at a golf course and country club in Kentucky to join longtime friend Steven Romeo on growing Music City Creative (MCC) as a mix of e-commerce and business-to-business custom merchandising.
Romeo was named an LGBTQ Artist Champion of Change in 2015 by the Obama Administration and started the nonprofit The Change Project in Birmingham, Ala. They then launched a business traveling the country, selling merchandise at events like Pride festivals and LGBTQ conferences. As these events came to a halt in 2020, Romeo discussed the idea for a new business model with Sizemore – one that would focus more on the internet and be direct-to-consumer.
The two started working in a converted 400-square-foot studio space that was part of a city project that built “maker spaces” from older public housing units
One day in August, while testing a rainbow “Y’all Means All” on a simple black t-shirt using a process called discharge printing, they decided to make a TikTok video. The mobile app was still fairly new, and Sizemore recalls only having a handful of followers at the time.
But what they were doing quickly got some attention and the video went viral […]
Read this week’s online issue.
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CSE hosts Emergency Town Hall on new laws in NC
August 29, 2023
The Campaign for Southern Equality held an emergency town hall on August 21 to discuss three new anti-LGBTQ+ laws now on the books in North Carolina — HB 808, HB 574 and SB 49 […]
IN THE TRIANGLE
Triangle Gay Men’s Chorus to host open rehearsals despite ticketing company withholding concert revenue
The Triangle Gay Men’s Chorus (TGMC) is set to host four open rehearsals to welcome people interested in joining the group from the end of August through September, according to the group’s website. TGMC’s “open invites” will be held at 7:30 p.m. on August 29, September 5, September 12, and September 19 at Pullen Memorial […]
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