photo by: Laura Kingston

Haus of McCoy, 1046 Massachusetts St.

As Codi Charles walked through the colorfully painted Haus of McCoy, they had ideas for what the bright and comfortable space could provide, but ultimately, they said, “the youth will decide.”

Haus of McCoy, a community hub for queer and trans youth, is literally located in a house, complete with a stocked kitchen and comfortably furnished living room, as well as several additional rooms still awaiting more specific purposes. Haus of McCoy opened its doors last month, and Charles, the founding executive director, said that locating the nonprofit organization inside an actual house was intentional, a reflection of queer and trans culture and how people have come together to support one another.

“If we think about houses, we’re thinking about queer and trans family, chosen family,” said Charles, who uses all pronouns, referencing support systems that started in the 1970s and 80s. “They created their own families and in many ways acted as a family — took care of each other emotionally, mentally, physically, financially.”

photo by: Laura Kingston

Codi Charles is pictured at the Haus of McCoy.

photo by: Laura Kingston

The living room at Haus of McCoy

The two-story home that serves as Haus of McCoy’s base sits on the corner of New Hampshire and 11th streets near the south entrance to downtown Lawrence. The close to 100-year-old home has five rooms that have been artfully decorated and furnished with colorful rugs and comfortable couches and chairs. In the living room, there is a TV, a piano and potted plants taking in light from large windows.

Haus of McCoy serves primarily middle- and high-school-age youth, centering those of color, and focuses on providing education, emergency relief and housing stability, according to its website. In addition to being a place for gathering and community meals, Charles said the house might accommodate an art room, a video game room, or a creation room with podcasting or other equipment. However, Charles emphasized that those are just ideas and that exactly how the different spaces in the house are used will depend largely on what the youth determine they want and need. Charles said that could be anything that provides them with fun or an opportunity to develop their passions.

“For me, the goal is to concentrate on this space and what they get out of this space,” Charles said. “And provide them time, relationships, education, knowledge, to be able to do the things that they want to do and dream the things that they want to dream.”

photo by: Laura Kingston

Youth gather at the Haus of McCoy.

photo by: Laura Kingston

One of several rooms at Haus of McCoy

Charles said that having a space for Black and Brown queer and trans youth to think about the contributions they want to make to the world was especially important.

“In many ways their trajectories are cut off,” Charles said. “They never get to a place where they really understand themselves and their power and their gifts and how that can contribute to their communities, because often lives are cut short or queer and trans folks are so consumed with safety and survival that it doesn’t leave much room for anything else.”

The Human Rights Campaign has been tracking fatal anti-transgender violence since 2013, but it notes that often the deaths go unreported or misreported, according to the HRC website. The HRC’s most recent report states that fatal violence against transgender and gender nonconforming people disproportionately affects transgender women, people of color, young people and people in the South. Since 2013, transgender women of color account for 157, or 78%, of the known victims of fatal violence against transgender and gender nonconforming people. Black transgender women represent two-thirds of all known victims since 2013.

Charles said it’s important to emphasize the most marginalized people to make sure that progress benefits everyone. Charles said that as a “Black, fat, disabled trans human” themselves, they felt like they knew intimately what it means to be erased in the community and not thought of in terms of services.

“If we are really trying to fix things and makes things better for queer and trans folks, we can’t start by centering white queer and trans folks; we have to start by centering the most marginalized,” Charles said. “And that means that if we center the most marginalized, we’ll fix the issues for everyone else.”

Charles said the name of the organization honors a good friend of theirs, Sheltreese McCoy. McCoy, who passed away in 2018, advocated for queer and trans people of color in higher education. On the Haus of McCoy website, a quote from McCoy speaks to that work.

“Don’t level the playing field, change it,” the quote says in all capital letters.

The Haus of McCoy, 1046 New Hampshire St., is open Wednesdays from 2 to 6 p.m. and serves a community meal at 5 p.m. The organization is community funded, and more information about services, donations and volunteer opportunities is available at hausofmccoy.org.