The LGBTQ+ Network, A Welcoming Space for Charlotte Employees
Published on June 16, 2026
Each June, the United States celebrates the culture and contributions of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) community during Pride Month. This year we want to highlight one of the City of Charlotte’s Employee Resource Networks (ERN) that celebrates this community year-round: LGBTQ+ Network.
Established in 2023 the goal of this ERN is to provide a welcoming space for the city’s employees who identify within the queer community.
We caught up with a few members to learn more about why they joined this ERN, its importance and what they love about working for the City of Charlotte.
Tell Us About Yourself
Kayla Chadwick-Schultz: Digital Content Manager, Charlotte Communications & Marketing, she/her
Ria Naab: Placemaking Community Associate, Urban Design Center, she/her
Alicia Emmons: Nondiscrimination Ordinance Program Supervisor, Community Relations, she/her
How did you find out about the LGBTQ+ Network?
Chadwick-Schultz: Working in Charlotte Communications and Marketing, we kind of get that intel about internal things a little bit before everyone else. So, a team member of ours who works with internal communications shared that ERNs were coming and that bunch of them were going to be created and gave us some insight into which ones were already gaining a lot of traction. Then once I saw that there was and LGBTQ one I was like, oh, I might as well join that, because I was still really new to the city and figured it would be a good way to meet people and to understand more about the organization.
Naab: I learned about it through City View. They mentioned all the ERN options, and I signed up for a bunch of them, and this is the one that I consistently kept showing up to events for.
Emmons: I was actually involved since the beginning, September 2023. We got together, created a charter, decided what we wanted out of the group, and then we began planning get-togethers. We’ve done a book club. We’ve participated in the Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Mint Museum, and we’ve also participated in Reel Out, Charlotte’s LGBTQ film festival, and then of course our big event the Charlotte Pride Parade and Festival in August. So, it’s just a really great group of people to be around and always brightens my day.
Why is having this space so important as a city employee?
Chadwick-Schultz: It’s nice to be able to just share some commonalities with people and know really that the city values this and values us as human beings outside of just the work that we’re doing. They want to bring us together. They want us to feel like we can talk about belonging and these things that are much bigger than just the work. It also allows us to kind of get together for big events like Charlotte Pride and stuff, where we have an organized front.
Naab: I really connect well with my queer community, and I did that when I was in high school and in college. I had a lot of affinity group associations, and so having this space to meet with people who identify the same as me, I feel like we always connect in a much stronger way than most friends do. It’s really great to have coworkers who understand that identity and what we go through.
Emmons: I think it’s really special to have a place where you can be your authentic self. It’s really special that the city values our employees for who they are, and they can just show up authentically and just be proud of who they are, bring their full selves to work. So, I think it’s great that the City of Charlotte is an employer that celebrates our LGBTQ employees and our allies as well. I think that it’s so special that we have representation in communications, and we value and attract LGBTQ talent in our workforce.
What do you love about your job and working for the City of Charlotte?
Chadwick-Schultz: The thing I love most about my job is the people I work with, honestly. I work with a lot of content creators who make content just like this, videos and just fun things that we put out on social media. So, it’s really fun to make content for the city, a city that I love being in. It’s just nice to be able to share this creative work that I get to do with the residents and just kind of be a voice in the Charlotte community.
Naab: I really love the impact that I make. A lot of private companies, it’s more about profit than it is about impact, and my role, especially for the placemaking grant, is about making strong community that is community-led. So, I don’t get to decide where the money goes. The community does, and I love hearing that feedback from the community. Hearing the thank you so much, this meant so much to me, or it meant so much to my community. Seeing people enjoy the work that I do is really special.
Emmons: So, in the nondiscrimination ordinance team, we get to engage with the community in ways where we’re letting people know what protections are in our city’s nondiscrimination ordinance. We also get to provide training to prevent discrimination before it happens, promote more inclusive spaces and we also get to be on that investigative side as well. So, folks can come to us if they’ve been discriminated against, and we will investigate the case. Our goal is always to reach an agreement, conciliation, so, in each case that we conciliate, we’re able to provide that relief to that person, provide training and make sure that we’re improving our city every day. I love it. I (also) love that City of Charlotte is a place where everyone belongs, feels valued, feels safe and is a place where everyone is celebrated. There’s a place for everyone. Everyone is welcomed, and it’s a place where we can really engage with each other, collaborate, come together, celebrate our differences and be able to build together in making the community stronger.
What is a fact related to the LGBTQ+ community people should know more about?
Chadwick-Schultz: I think if you’re local to Charlotte, one thing you should really know more about is the UNC Charlotte Archives. They have a localized collection of LGBTQ+ archives that people don’t know about, and it is so expansive to the point, you know where we always talk about how Charlotte doesn’t like to preserve its history that well and that archive alone has so much history in it that people can access freely. You just email the archive, set up an appointment and you’ll see all this stuff from decades prior that talks about how long we’ve been here and how long we’ve served this community. It really gives you a good picture of what the LGBTQ space used to look like here in Charlotte. So, it just proves that we’ve always been here, we will continue to always be here, and I think it’s a great resource to have.
Naab: We actually did a book club last year, and we read “The Queer Advantage.” It is a really good book. It’s a bunch of different interviews with different celebrities, some that you know well like Elton John or celebrities that you just never heard of or you didn’t know that they were queer or had like a queer identity. So, it was really cool hearing all those stories and learning about it. We really had good discussions around the experience and learning about what a queer identity sort of builds in you like that confidence, that self-assurance, and the community connections that you make. It’s all about that queer advantage and how you navigate the world as a group and as a community.
Emmons: We did read “The Queer Advantage” by Andrew Gelwicks in our ERN book club. So, that was really a special book that I enjoyed. As far as films, I would say my top ones are Joe Bell, a biographical film and that one is really special. It really brings awareness to bullying and our LGBTQ community. Will and Harper. That is a really special film. The Matthew Shepard Story is really touching if you’ve not seen it yet, but it did inform the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson. That one was really special as well.