Rowan Hunter, 15, stepped up to the lectern at Princeton City Hall in July 2021. It was one of their first acts as part of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Princeton Texas Diverse (PTX Diverse). Pride—shorthand for the international celebration of queer rights typically observed in June—“was a place where you see all these people welcome, why would you want to take that away?” they asked city council members.
Hunter, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, was among residents of this outer-rim Dallas-Fort Worth suburb who gathered that day to oppose special permit ordinances that would require nonprofits like PTX Diverse to seek permission to reserve public parks even for events under 250 people. This seemingly technical tweak was introduced following backlash to Hunter’s organization’s inaugural Pride event at Veterans Memorial Park, Princeton’s central green space, which included a drag performance. After that June 2021 event, an online citizens’ petition had demanded the permitting change.
Hunter had come out as trans earlier that year, then joined PTX Diverse after dating the son of the group’s co-founder Charlise Lee. Despite the new permit restrictions, which passed, the nonprofit still managed to organize three successful Pride events in Princeton in the following years. But, over those same years, Hunter and their then-boyfriend, along with Lee and other PTX Diverse activists, would find themselves bullied, harassed, and eventually shut out for expressing their identities and gathering with LGBTQ+ advocates in their hometown—a conservative bedroom community of about 28,000 on the periphery of larger Collin County suburbs.
