Oral History: Frank Groosby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nhL9L3uhdA

Frank Groosby is the Board president of Carrollton Rainbow. This oral history details Frank's background, his work with Carrollton Rainbow, and the growth of Carrollton's queer community.

If you would like to participate in an oral history with Carrollton Rainbow, complete this interest form.

"I think [Carrollton rainbow] has shown the community that we can have our own safe spaces right here."

Transcript

Note: Transcripts are edited for clarity. Studdering and filler words have been removed.

Floyd: Alright we are now recording. Alright. Today June 2nd 2026. My name is Floyd Hurst. I'm here with Frank Groosby. Frank, do I have your consent to record?

Frank: Yes you do.

Floyd: Alright. So I’m interviewing you as part of my internship with Carrollton Rainbow to collect oral histories of the board and other members, so for the audience, can you give a brief description of your background, who you are, and what you do for Carrollton Rainbow?

Frank: Yes. As you said my name is Frank Groosby. I’ve lived in west Georgia my entire life, really. I grew up in Paulding County, moved out here when I was 14. I went to Carroll County schools, and went to the University of West Georgia and studied Psychology. After college I decided to get into real estate. I’m a realtor now, and I’m married to Andy. We’ve been together for 23 years, and we’ve been married for- I think- 16 years. 

Floyd: Wow.

Frank: I know. That's extremely long in gay years. 

[Both laugh]

Frank: So he and I have been together that long. We have lived in west Georgia our whole lives, so this existence is all I’ve ever known. And then I’ve worked and lived in the community; In west Georgia. I came to know Carrollton Rainbow just after the pandemic, when myself and my husband recognized that we were pretty much devoid of any real sense of community. He nor I are religious people by any means, so a lot of people find their community in religious spaces, and we are not those people. We realized in the pandemic, ironically, even though we were isolating we were suddenly aware of how there wasn’t a sense of community to reach out and just connect with people to get through that, so coming out of the pandemic I knew that was something that we needed. Some friend of mine just sent me a link to this random picnic with this group called Carrollton Rainbow that I’ve never heard of, and she’s like, “I thought you might like this.” I showed it to Andy and our best friend Avery that you know- Avery also lives with us and identifies as nonbinary- they're our best friend for 22 years, I lost my train of thinking there. Hold on a second I’m reeling it back. 

Floyd: No problem.

Frank: And Andy and I realized we didn’t have the community. I got this invitation, we went out to the picnic, and I saw these people. First of all it was just wild ‘cause I was surprised like, “I didn’t know there were this many gay people in Carrollton,”  just because I hadn’t been putting myself in any situations where I had the opportunity to see the community that was here, but I think Carrollton Rainbow has a lot to do with that ‘cause nobody was creating any kind of spaces before Carrollton Rainbow came along where we had to go. Nobody was. And it wasn’t until they came along and quote-unquote “built it” that we had somewhere to go and and somewhere to congregate and say, “we’re here. We’ve been here the whole time.” And in going to that picnic, I slowly not only started finding my community that’s been here the whole time, it pulled me in, obviously, and I wanted to be a part of it, and I wanted to help it grow, and within a year they asked me to join the board, and within two years, I became president of the board. I feel like it’s my primary focus, above my work or anything. What I put the most energy in is in this, and I don’t do any of this for pay. This is all volunteer, but I get so much more back out of this now than I ever would monetarily speaking. 

Floyd: Right. So before Carrollton Rainbow, how would you describe your relationship to the wider Carrollton area as a queer person?

Frank: Good question. I would say reserved, conservative, not as open. I mentioned that I was a realtor, and before the pandemic, I was the kind of person that, I would be very careful and calculated with my language when it came to pronouns referencing my person, who my personal life, who my spouse was, and if I had any client in my car that I was showing property to, I became very skillful at dodging any references to that part of my life, so I didn’t have to mention it for fear of the fact that they wouldn’t want to work with me once they found out that I was a gay man with a husband out here in Carrollton. Because unfortunately a lot of the people at that time that I was putting in my car probably wouldn’t agree with my lifestyle. And so I was conducting my business and my life in a way still very much in the closet, and I did that for a very very long time, and in the finding of this somewhere in the pandemic one of the positive things that came out of it was that I didn’t want to do that anymore. I wanted to make a concerted effort to surround myself with the community of likeminded people, so that the sphere of influence that I had from which to work with my client pool would more likely be the type of people that I would want to have a cup of coffee with. 

Floyd: And is it?

Frank: Yes. I became a member of the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estates of America. I started focusing- I dumped my previous lender who was a local lender to the area, but not a friend to the community, if you understand. There were couples that I would put with this person that I just didn’t feel comfortable with them being with them, just ‘cause they were a local, well known realtor. I decided for myself, I said “You know what? I want to find a realtor that is a friend to the community. I don’t care if they’re local to here or there. They don’t need to be local to here to do that type of business.” And I did. I started surrounding myself more with other professionals that were also friends to the community, so I just feel like we’re kind of trying to build more of a coalition of “We’ve got you, and we’re all in this together.” And the doing of that makes it feel more that I’m kind of going with the flow of the community, and I’m not trying to fight against anything. 

Floyd: That’s awesome. I’ve never heard of the- what was it? The Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Realtors? 

Frank: Oh, yeah. There’s a big acronym for it, yes. It’s the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals. There’s the P on the end of it. It’s a national organization. I have gotten several clients, referrals, from that, just relocation to other states and they’re coming to Carrollton. They’re like “well let me come into this database and I’ll find an agent that’s either a member of the community or identifies as an ally to the community,” and you have to pay to be a registered part of that program. You can’t just send your email in. I’ve opted to be part of that for a while now, and that has gained me a lot of attention as a member of the community realtor, not just a realtor realtor. So that’s helped a lot. It’s a great organization. If you’re thinking about moving to another state or something, and you’re freaking out about, "I want to work with an agent that I don’t have to worry about myself, you can just tap in there, find an agent that works in that town and you know that you’re with someone that should be a safe space.

Floyd: Okay, awesome. That’s cool. Pivoting back to Carrollton Rainbow. One of the questions I have written down is, since you’ve worked with Carrollton Rainbow since the pandemic and I was curious about how support for Carrollton Rainbow, particularly the drag shows because I know you in particular are very involved in the drag shows, how support for Carrollton Rainbow has fluctuated in Carrollton, and for the queer community of Carrollton in general. You obviously living here your whole life, but particularly the time that you’ve worked with Carrollton Rainbow. 

Frank: I would say that I’ve definitely observed a growth in Carrollton Rainbow in the years that I’ve been here. I’ve seen it start with one thing, ‘cause when I came to Carrollton Rainbow the first pride event that I was a part of was over at the ACT center. We barely had air conditioning. It was inside, outside. There were people that had booths next to stables. It was a completely different event, and even then when we had that event, we were too big for that space. We just didn’t know it at the time. We didn’t know that that many people- we ran out of parking halfway through the day, so we had no idea. And at that time I was just a vendor, I hadn’t even officially joined the group yet, but I was there the whole day and saw it. Even on that day they were like “Okay. We have to find something bigger and better than this,” and that was when it moved to the University. The first time we were at the University, it was great. We had a huge turnout, but there was an opportunity there. Every year it’s gotten bigger. We started out, you mentioned the drag shows, when we started out the drag shows were always a part of the day, but they were never necessarily a part of the event because they were relegated to after hours, at a local brewery in town. When I say after hours, the show didn’t start until after 10:00 so our pride event would end around 4:00 as far as the vendor festival, but then this drag show wouldn’t occur until 10:00 or 10:30 at a different location. It would be attended, it would always sell out, but the max capacity for that venue was 60 people, so no matter how much interest there was in that event, how many people came to the pride festival, we were only gonna be able to accommodate 60 humans in that space and we were only gonna be able to do it at 10:30 or after they close, that particular location’s preference. So when we opened up the opportunity last year to keep everything in-house, I said to the group “Look, we’re paying for this space for the whole day. We stop at 4, but we still pay for it for the whole rest of the day. Why don’t we have the drag show here? We’re in a ballroom where they have a drag show every year already. We can pay a flipping fee, and they’ll flip the room for us and turn it into a performance space between the vendor market and the time of the show, and then everything's in house.” It took some nudging to get that. There was some pushback even within our own board.

Floyd: What kind of pushback?

Frank: About putting drag on the campus. And I said, “But there’s already drag on the campus. They’ve been having their own drag shows there for years now. I don’t think we need to be afraid of that.” So there was some fear and some pushback within the board on this, but I kept trudging along, got it approved from the University, got it approved from the drag performers. I didn’t know if they were all down with it. And they’re like, “Okay. Let’s try it and see if it will work out.” We ended up with over 250 people at- Did you come to the drag show?

Floyd: The one at Carrollton Pride?

Frank: Yeah. Last year.

Floyd: Yes. 

Frank: Yes. It was the most successful, highly attended drag show ever for Carrollton Rainbow. It was insane. We had a line out the door. We had no idea. We had to set up a second ticket taker station because we couldn’t facilitate the people quickly enough. It was a huge success, so we said, “Okay. Obviously this is what we need to do, so going forward everything’s gonna be in house.” We added live bands to the element last year, which was great that we got a concert in with the vendor festival more this year. I’ve watched it grow, and the drag element of it without, unequivocally, has played a huge role in the growth of this. There has always been a huge market and need, apparently, for drag because every time any of us have a show, it sells out. Whether it’s us, whether it’s a fellow drag house, the Trixx girls, it always sells out. The only obstacles that have ever presented themselves in this community as far as the drag is concerned has been finding the correct venues to have it, finding the venue owners that are willing to let you have it, finding venue owners that are willing to let you have it, but are they willing to let you have it during business hours? Those have been the obstacles that we have overcome. The desire for drag in the community has always been here. Every time we have a show, it sells out. We’ve never not sold out a show, so I think the want and the need for it is always here. Our obstacle is and will continue to be for a little bit here is finding venue owners that are brave enough to let you have a show there, because Peter out at the Lune- and am I okay to transition over to that now? 

Floyd: Yeah! No problem

Frank: Okay. Peter out at the Lune is- Peter Mayhew is the owner of the Lune Whimsical Cafe in Newnan Georgia, and he reached out to me- to Carrollton Rainbow- and said, “I hear you guys are doing really well out there in Carrollton, and you guys produce some drag shows. I own this restaurant and bar out here. We’re the unofficial gay bar in town, and I really want to bring drag to Newnan. Can you help me do that?” And we have now had 3 sold out, super successful shows there. We have another one coming up at the end of the month for their first brunch. It’s already sold out. Again, the need for it is out there. The first time we’ve ever introduced drag, and every show sold out. I’m gonna credit drag with that again. They’re dipping their toe in it in Newnan, and he’s already planning activities for pride month, so I can see the bubblings already in Newnan out there of what happened here. I’m excited to see that grow, and the fact that we’re actually getting to help and water a little bit of it from Carrollton Rainbow is very exciting. But I see happening out there what happened out here, and so I see that it’s possible for it to happen out there. And it’s already happening in Dallas. They’ve developed their own PFLAG and their seeds are starting to grow out there.

Floyd: What would you say contributes to the demand for drag in these areas?

Frank: What contributes to the demand for drag in these areas? Lack thereof. I think the people who live out here see just as much of the drag as far as media and that attention is concerned. RuPaul’s Drag Race continues to be one of the top shows on television, and it’s just as widely watched and consumed in the less densely populated, less urban areas like we live in as it is in town, but the opportunity to see it up close and personal has just never presented itself, because of all these factors. I think it’s finally become so popular in the media sphere that that’s giving permission for it to find its way out into the more suburban areas and we’re seeing it pop up in places that we never would have before. 

Floyd: I remember that the one that I volunteered with at The Lune was protested. I was curious if that was the only instance of that happening, or if we’ve had more of that since Trump took office, for example. 

Frank: Great question. In all the the time that I’ve been with Carrollton Rainbow, and we have produced so many drag shows, that one that you actually happened to attend at the Lune was literally the only drag show that I have ever been to that we’ve produced where we’ve seen any protesters. 

Floyd: Interesting.

Frank: I attended an event at the University of West Georgia, they invited Carrollton Rainbow to come amongst a number of other likeminded vendors. PFLAG was there, Free Mom Hugs was there, and there was a gentleman that came into that space with a camera trying to record and provoke some of the vendors, and he had to be escorted out. That is the only other time I’ve been in that close of a situation where someone was genuinely trying to put themselves in a protest position. As far as our drag shows, that is the only time I’ve ever seen it. Which I’m surprised to say that. Honestly, would not have been surprised if I had seen something pop up at one of the many drag shows that we’ve had before, but I will say that a lot of our drag shows are pretty contained and protected. Like if you think about the one at the University, that’s in theory, you have to get up into the campus, get up into the campus center ballroom, into that building, and then we have officers stationed at each exit, so we thankfully have our shows in very protected spaces. But The ones that that are right there in the public where you can walk right up, we’ve had those too just like in the Lune, but that’s the first time that anybody’s staged a pretty elaborate set up. They came armed with signs. It was a pretty well produced event. I mean, the event owner and the help, they did a pretty good job of extinguishing the situation. The guests never knew anything about it, but it was a real thing that happened. 

Floyd: Right. Why would you say they targeted that one in particular? 

Frank: They said that it had gotten some kind of a local media attention of a local group of women. I can’t remember what they had referred to it as, but he says that he thinks his drag show got some local media attention and that attention made its way to this particular group that drove down there. Apparently the group was not from Newnan. They drove down from somewhere and found out about the event. 

Floyd: Interesting. I didn’t know that that show got local media attention. Was it negative or positive? 

Frank: I don’t know. Just however they found out about it. I would assume that they just like- because he was like trying to promote it and stuff, that it was happening in the local media, so it’s possible they could have found out that way. Word gets around.

Floyd: Interesting, because that’s the only drag show I’ve been to with Carrollton Rainbow or anywhere else really-

Frank: Oh my God we’ve got to change that. 

Floyd: No, I mean that got protesters. Because I’ve been to a few at Carrollton Pride, and you know, they ain’t get protestors. Even the one I’ve been to in Atlanta didn’t get protesters. 

Frank: Yeah, and even during the event the security was calling me up and being like, “Look I think they’re protesters,” and because, you know, I’ve never had this happen I’m like “Nah I don’t think so. I think it’s fine,” and I didn’t buy it. He started setting up like, “I’m gonna protect the entrance.” Lo and behold he was right the whole time. His mind saw something that mine definitely didn’t because the exact people he thought, those were the ones that came up and they pulled a wagon with signs in it. They were ready to go.

Floyd: Yeah I haven’t been harassed by protestors since I’ve been to Atlanta Pride last. They're normally at these wide scale events.

Frank: Yeah, and at wide scale events like Atlanta Pride- you know I’ve been going there since I was 20- I got accustomed to seeing the typical protesters that would always be mass and covered up by the Pansy Patrol or the Angel Action, so that was something that I was accustomed to seeing, but out here in these parts that was new to me.

Floyd: Right, so pivoting away from the protestors at the Lune. What would you say is the relationship between Carrollton Rainbow and the university. You know, particularly with QSA, which I know that many of our members were previously in the QSA. I was previously in the QSA on campus, so I was curious to know more about the relationship between those two organizations, and the University in general.

Frank: Sure. The relationship between Carrollton Rainbow and the university is pretty superficial at this point, I would say. When we do have the pride events there, it is very clear that that is our event that we are paying to have at the university. The university isn’t necessarily putting their name behind it. This isn’t a university sponsored event. In that way, the relationship is very much vendor-university-venue provider. I wouldn’t say it’s much more than that. More specifically though, to the QSA, that’s a much more important relationship to us in terms of connection and fostering community, because we have the same goals in mind. We try to always keep an open dialogue through whatever channels with the QSA when we’ve got events, especially events that specifically pertain to them and then recently we’ve become more aware of the fact of issues that are prohibitive for students at the University who want to participate in some of our events. More specifically speaking is transportation. That’s a big prohibiter for some of the students that have wanted to participate in some of our events, they just can’t get there. We were very excited to try to foster a relationship with the QSA, but we also- like that thing I mentioned right there- would love the opportunity to identify any issue or obstacle that the QSA or any students at the university may be having if they want to try to be apart of any of the stuff that we do, but they just can’t get there because transportation. Sidebar, we’ve been trying to look into if there’s an opportunity with the university where they can use some of their existing transportation to help that. 

Floyd: Interesting!

Frank: Yeah, because they use their school buses to cart their cheerleaders around all the time, so I don’t see- if we lead it with the QSA and say it’s coming from the QSA, it seems like there should be an opportunity there to create some type of transportation situation. Say, for example, the Kristi Lee concert and the picnic. That’s a perfect opportunity. What if the university students want to get there? They definitely can’t walk there, but it would be an easy drive for that bus to take them there, drop them off at a certain time and pick them up at a certain time, ‘cause everything has a definite beginning and ending to it. That’s one of the things we’re also thinking about that we think could help incorporating more of the students in addition to the QSA to be able to participate in our events and vice versa.

Floyd: That’s interesting. I didn’t know about that.

Frank: Yeah because we were invited, along with Lucy, to speak at one of Dr. Deline’s classes. Do you know him?

Floyd: I don’t think so.

Frank: I think his last name is spelled Deline, D-E-L-I-N-E. Anyway, and it was there, speaking to these students, where we found out about this transportation issue. Several students in there were like, “Yeah we see your shows and stuff all the time. We just can’t get there.” They’re not as lucky as you are to be a good driver. 

[Laugh]

Floyd: Would you say that there’s also a generational disconnect? 

Frank: Yeah. Without a doubt. I’m glad that you brought that up. There’s definitely a generational disconnect that we can feel that’s palpable between us and the QSA that we tried to bridge, and we continue to try to bridge, because the majority if not all the members of the board of Carrollton Rainbow are in the 40+ age range. There’s an issue there of being able to connect, so one of the things we’ve implemented to try to help with that is the trans nonbinary support group. While the leaders of that Avery, Lucy, and Riley are all in that same age demographic, we’re trying to create a space that’s not about- they’re just there facilitating. We’re trying to create a space where people of the same age group, demographic can come together and just hang out. Like, last time we had a meeting, Avery messaged me right after saying, “That was such a great meeting. So many people came.” I don’t know if you came or not, but so many people came that hadn’t been, and they all ended up getting together after the meeting, and they all went to Gallery Row to hang out. That’s the goal. Those kinds of opportunities we’re trying to create so younger people can come together in a space, and kind of connect and meet otherwise that they’re not able to. 

Floyd: That is so cool. No, I did not go to that event. I meant to. 

Frank: And that event was previously held- for several months it was held at Grace Lutheran, and it wasn’t nearly as well attended. We didn’t know if it was because the church or the location, but once we moved it over to where it’s located now, at the Carroll County Mental Health advocates, that building, the Stallings building right there down from the square, attendance shot up and one of the reasons we discovered last week was transportation. Many of the people that came there walked down there from another event they had just gone to at Gallery Row, and when it was done they just walked right back. They said it being there made it so much more convenient, because that’s where a lot of the community is, is in and around the square, and it being out there, the church was inconvenient for some people.  

Floyd: Right. That makes sense. So how would you say that Carrollton Rainbow’s presence has had a general effect on- other than the things that you’ve already said- how else would you say that’s had a general effect on the queer community of Carrollton and the wider Carrollton community in general?

Frank: I think it has shown the community that we can have our own safe spaces right here. That they, and we, have been here the whole time, and we don’t have to drive into a nearest urban city to be able to be around other members of our community or to be able to go to events where we feel safe, comfortable, and protected and appreciated. We’re figuring out through Carrollton Rainbow that we can do those same things where we live, that we can feel safe right here in Carrollton. We don’t have to go somewhere else to do that. We can create that safe space right here. 

Floyd: Right. Awesome! Well, we’re currently at 29 minutes and 15 seconds for our time. Do you have any closing thoughts before we finish this oral history?

Frank: Nope. I don’t think so. You’ve been great.

Floyd: Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here, and for being willing to be interviewed. It really helps a lot. 

Frank: Absolutely.

Floyd: Thank you so much! 

Frank: You are very welcome, Floyd. I’ll talk to you soon. 

Floyd: Alright. I’m ending the recording now.