Exploring Life & Business with Elizabeth Haley of The Seed Theatre

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Haley.

Hi Elizabeth, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When my oldest child came out to me and their dad, they were 11 years old. Aaron had been assigned female at birth but (my husband and I) knew he was different than other kids since he was walking. But, when he came out as transgender, we were caught off guard. We didn’t know anyone like him, and we were scared of being in the south, all alone, without any help. We knew we wanted to support him and make sure he was safe, be we didn’t know where to start.

Over the last 5 years, we have worked hard to connect with other queer people, families, parents of kids like Aaron, and everyone we could find in the community. I’ve learned a lot. From this learning, we built a charity called Binders for Confident Kids that provides chest compression binders to kids across the country. When Aaron asked for his first binder, I didn’t know what to do or where to go. Turns out thousands of parents were in the same boat and I worked to learn everything I could. When I realized just how expensive and important chest compression binders were, I started connecting parents of kids who needed a binder with parents of kids who had outgrown the size they first needed. For a while, that was it. And then people started buying binders for kids who couldn’t afford them. 6 months later, we filed for a 501c3 and I was able to officially gain charity status for the work I was doing. Now, we ship about 100-150 binders per month across the USA and Canada to young people that can’t afford or safely obtain a binder on their own.

After this was all up and running, we found a small community of queer people working together on a project called Sanctuary. I partnered with their founder, Kye Sayers, and worked hard to build theatre and youth services into the project. Unfortunately, Sanctuary closed in March of 2022. My husband, kids, and I were devastated. We seriously began discussing moving to Washington state or another (very blue) part of the country where we could find support. Then we realized that if we had nowhere to go, neither did anyone else. We signed the lease for the Seed Theatre in April 2022 and launched our theatre/community space so that we could continue to provide a safe place for queer people in Chattanooga.

To this date, we’re the only sober safe place in Chattanooga TN for queer people. We are the resource for thousands of queer people who come from Georgia, Alabama, SC, NC, and Tennessee. We sponsor a community fridge that provides food and hygiene items to those with food insecurity in our neighborhood, as well as a community library inside the theatre. We have support groups, educational classes, mutual aid work, and theatrical productions (from drag to Steel Magnolias and everything in between). And we haven’t hit our one-year anniversary yet.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Opening a queer safe space in the deep south was never going to be “easy.” But we have had a huge outpouring of support and love from our community and while the work is hard, we know how much it is needed by the people who share their experiences every single day.

As a family-friendly space, we have been a target of extremist protestors who have been protesting all ages drag over the last few months. We have had white supremacy groups, neo nazis, alt-right and terrorist groups come and protest our existence. So far, we have had 3 family-friendly drag events since November, and so far, we have had protestors at each of them. People standing across the road (the police won’t let them closer), screaming profanity and hate speech across a bullhorn. It really changes your perspective about how important places like ours are.

We’ve been impressed with The Seed Theatre, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our mission is to provide safety and community to the LGBTQIA community. We wish to serve communities living with and affected by HIV, LGBTQIA persons, and youth in particular by creating community, fundraising, gender-affirming garments, and safe spaces while partnering to support other organizations with similar missions.

We are the only sober safe space in Chattanooga TN that is designed for people in the LGBTQIA community. We focus on mutual aid, and solidarity not charity, and kids being allowed to be who they are.

A recent moment I am most proud of was connecting two moms who had gender non-conforming kids. Both children were assigned male at birth and are non-binary, one was aged 5 and the other is 6 years. Through our community-focused events, the moms ended up meeting each other, introducing the kids, and finding awesome friends. The two kids have decided they are the best of friends – and the best part is finding someone else “just like them.” These moments, where members of our community feel less alone and less afraid – this is what our work is all about.

Who else deserves credit for your story?
Brenton, my creative director, husband, partner, and father of my children has been a huge part of the theatre’s success and I couldn’t do it without them. Brenton is a genius author and writes fascinating stories exploring trauma, depression, fears, hopes, and dreams. Without them, I never would have had the guts to do this, and the theatre wouldn’t be half of what it is today without them.

Kye Sayers has turned into my “partner in shine” and has taken her learned experiences from the Sanctuary Project and helped me learn everything she knew so that I could be more successful off the bat. She has been core in creating partnerships, bringing fundraising to the space, and much more.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theseedtheatre.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theseedtheatre/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theseedtheatre 

Image Credits
Dru Schenk