Editor’s Note: RVA Magazine is proud to partner with Virginia PrideFest, happening this Saturday, September 12, and to produce the annual Pride Guide celebrating Richmond and Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community. You can download the 2026 Pride Guide HERE.
We’d also like to thank the following sponsors who made the 2026 Pride Guide possible: Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia MOCA, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Health Brigade, Godfrey’s, Chrysler Museum of Art, and Steve Davis at River Fox Realty
Tiera Craig has been executive director of Diversity Richmond for a couple of months, and she has spent much of that time listening. As someone new to the city and trying to understand the community she now serves, it is a good first step.
In a city with a diverse and growing LGBTQ+ community, there are many who welcome that approach.
Craig took over the organization on July 1 after working in leadership development for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and as a consultant in LGBTQ+ advocacy, activism and education. She left the federal government amid changes in its policies toward LGBTQ+ people and saw Diversity Richmond as an opportunity to bring together her professional experience and advocacy work.
“I feel like I can be the driver in that effort in taking Diversity to the next stage,” Craig told me.
But stepping into one of Richmond’s most established LGBTQ+ organizations, Craig isn’t arriving with all the answers. Her approach starts with getting outside the building, listening and asking questions.
“I operate through a Black feminist lens, under the assumption that the people that have the most need probably have the most answers on how to fulfill that need,” Craig said. “My queerness, my Blackness, my womanness allows me to be comfortable and accepted in those communities. That’s kind of where I’m leading and how I’m leading this charge to take Diversity Richmond to the next level: being in the community, listening to the community and allowing the community to help us go to that next level.”
She describes that approach using the concept of going to the “gemba,” a term that comes from Toyota’s lean manufacturing system and essentially means going to the place where the work is actually happening.
“Going into the densely populated queer spaces, going to where it’s happening, going outside of Diversity to the events, the listening sessions, just being in the space to hear and see what’s happening,” Craig said. “Not waiting for it to be told second, third, fourth hand, not making an assumption. Actually going and sitting in it and hearing and experiencing those things.”
That listening comes at a difficult time for nonprofits serving LGBTQ+, Black, Brown, Indigenous and other marginalized communities.
“We have had reduced financial assistance from the outside world and the economy,” Craig said. She points to Diversity Thrift as an example. “People aren’t giving things because they don’t have the funds to buy the things that they’re giving away. On the other side of that, there are more people who can’t go to the Walmarts or the Macy’s or the Targets, so they’re coming here.”
“We have more of a need,” she continued. “We find ourselves wanting to provide for the community and trying to best provide what the community needs when our resources and income are limited.”
For someone new to Richmond, Craig has been impressed by the community she has encountered.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s the smallest big city I’ve ever been in. You know everybody. And it’s the South, so you still have that big city feel, but still that hometown, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ feel.”
Her larger goal is positioning Diversity Richmond as a hub connecting the different pieces of the community.
“Our mission is to be the hub of the Greater Richmond area, connecting people, programs and purpose,” Craig said. “That’s really where I see us in the future, actually serving as the hub, the spokes being the other organizations, retailers, entrepreneurs in the LGBT and ally community, and being a place where they have their shows and their shops, participate in programs, and we are able to resource out.”
Craig has a phrase for the idea: One Mission, Many Doors.
“A lot of people say, ‘What is Diversity? Oh, I know they’re the thrift store. Oh, they’re Virginia Pride.’ But we’re all of those things,” she said. “Whichever door you come in, be it the Virginia Pride door, be it the Diversity Thrift door, be it our art gallery door, be it any of our programs, or any of our 14 doors that are around this building, we are to serve one mission, and that’s to be the hub for the LGBT Greater Richmond area, period, full stop, and to include everybody so they can feel safe, seen, heard and valued.”
That mission, she said, is making sure people throughout Greater Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community “feel safe, seen, heard and valued.”
Craig is still learning the organization and Richmond itself.
“I’m learning a lot, meeting a lot of folks, and everybody has wonderful ideas and are open for collaboration,” she said. “As I continue to get my footing and understand fully the business of the organization, the needs of the community, then I’ll be going out to further invite folks into these many doors.”
And when I asked what she ultimately wanted the community to know, Craig brought it back to why she is here.
“I work for the community,” she said. “Whatever I can do to uplift, to engage, to inform, empower our community, I’m here to do that.”
That means “leading with curiosity first,” Craig said, and continuing to ask a simple question: “How can Diversity Richmond help you? I may have all the ideas in the world, but that’s for me. I need to know what it does for the community.”
And maybe that’s the simplest introduction to Richmond’s newest LGBTQ+ leader.
What can we do for you?
Photo by R. Anthony Harris
Support RVA Magazine. Support Independent Media in Richmond.
RVA Magazine has remained one of Richmond’s few independent voices. Since 2005, we have provided grassroots coverage of our artists, musicians, and communities, marginalized or otherwise, documenting the city’s culture that lies right under the surface and beyond the headlines.
But we can’t do this without you. A small donation, even as little as $2, one-time or recurring, helps us continue to produce honest, local coverage free from outside interference. Every dollar makes a difference. Your support helps keep us going and keeps the local creative spirit alive. Thank you for standing with independent media, and thank you for reading.
Show your SUPPORT HERE
Also, subscribe to the newsletter HERE
We’ve got merch HERE
Subscribe to the Substack HERE
And Reddit HERE
And YouTube HERE
